


Family Ties

by thestanceyg



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy is Coulson's Sister, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 31,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4130247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestanceyg/pseuds/thestanceyg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil is Darcy's older brother.  Initially, he had no interest in being a brother, but that changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Phil is a Brother

**Author's Note:**

> The first few chapters just sort of happened today. Hope you enjoy!

When Phil was 10, his parents announced that he was about to become a big brother.  He was old enough to understand what needed to happen in order for that to happen, and he was _mortified_ that it was happening in his house.  He resolutely kept his mouth shut at school, wary of the teasing that would follow if people knew what his parents had been up to.  Eventually it was obvious that his mom was pregnant, and the jokes came when she would drop him off and pick him up from school.

Then, just as school was about to be let out for the summer, the principal came into the room and pulled Phil out of the room.  His grandmother was there to drive him to the hospital.  His sister was on her way.  It was several more hours before Darcy made her appearance and he was allowed to see her.  He sat quietly in the waiting room, reading his Captain America book while nurses cooed over what a good boy he was.  But he wasn’t.  He didn’t want a sister.  And, somehow, he knew that was wrong.

He frowned when they took him into the room, unsure what to do.  His dad put him in a chair and asked if he wanted to hold his sister.  He did not.  But he knew it was expected, so he simply held out his hands.

When Darcy was placed in his arms and he looked down at her, he was struck by how much she suddenly mattered.  She was so tiny and vulnerable.  She couldn’t protect herself.  She couldn’t ask for what she needed.  Her cries were piercing, but he didn’t mind.  This was her only way to ask for things.  He was reluctant to hand her back to their mom when it was time to feed her.  Suddenly there was some sort of odd purpose in his life.  He was her brother.  His job was to look out for her and protect her.  Make the world a better place for her.  He loved her, and wasn’t that the strangest thing?

If only he realized just how much of a handful his sister would be.  (Maybe he did and just didn’t care.  Perhaps that was the power of sibling love.)


	2. Darcy Lewis is Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy Lewis knows she shouldn't be mad at her brother, but she can't help it.

Darcy Lewis was mad at her brother.  She knew she had no right to be, but she was.  Their parents had divorced just six months earlier, and he wasn’t going to have to deal with the fallout because he was going to college.  Their parents had been proud of him and had mostly kept it together through his graduation, but things seemed to be falling apart at the seams as he loaded his car to head out.  Just a month earlier Darcy had sat at the courthouse while her parents changed her name to her mother’s maiden name, even though she thought it was stupid.  It was like another layer of distance from her brother, another reason to believe they weren’t really connected.  Darcy hated it.

To help herself not hate everything so much, she saved up her allowance to buy envelopes and stamps.  Every other week she would write to Phil about what was going on in her life, and she would include a stamped envelope to write her back.  (Her mom had explained to her that college students didn’t have much money, and Darcy didn’t want that to be the reason he couldn’t write her back.  Later she realized that was how her mom justified not charging the frat-like boys that would move in their house any rent even though they could really use the money.)

And Phil always wrote her back.  She kept his letters in a box under her bed.  He gave pretty solid advice about all sorts of things.  When she was fighting with her friends, he reminded her to think about things from their point of view and explained how to give a sincere apology.  When she suddenly hit puberty and was mortified about how her body was changing, he had sent her copies of pages from a health textbook explaining everything and encouraged her to talk to the school nurse when their mom wasn’t giving her much guidance.  When the latest boy toy was leering at her, he unexpectedly showed up one weekend to teach her some self defense and to take her out for ice cream.  (Later she would wonder why her mom was so mad at Phil and why the boyfriend had disappeared.  Much later she would realize that Phil did a lot more that weekend than just talk to her and take her out for a treat.)

Then Phil joined the military and Darcy cried herself to sleep for weeks, worried sick that she would lose the only person that had always looked out for her.  She saved up her babysitting money to send him care packages.  She carefully hid the boxes of all his Captain America and Howling Commando memorabilia that her mom was considering selling to help pay bills.  She realized that this is what he was good at- protecting- but she worried about the cost.  She grew into a woman that didn’t need her brother to take care of her, into a woman that he no longer had to be strong for.  Someone to have his back too.  Not that she could do much, but she could make choices so she wasn’t weak and he didn’t need to worry about her.

She still wrote him letters every other week.  Sometimes he couldn’t write back for a very long time.

Then Phil was home, telling her he was going to work for the government, and she was confused.  Why would he want  desk job?  That didn’t feel very Captain America of him.  He just looked at her with sad eyes and told her it was for the best.  She wondered if something had gone wrong and he wasn’t telling her.  She handed the boxes of his memorabilia over a little more roughly than necessary, hoping the physical action would keep the tears from spilling out.  She didn’t want him to think she needed protecting from him of all people.

They didn’t talk for almost the entire time Darcy was in college, though she was fairly certain the unmarked package that contained a taser was from him (even though there was no note). It was so very Phil that she couldn’t imagine it being from anyone else.  

During these years she didn’t write letters-he hadn’t left a new address.  (She also laughed a little at the irony of her not having the extra money for a book of stamps anyway.)

Then New Mexico happened.


	3. Phil Should Have Known Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New Mexico is NOT where Phil imagined seeing his sister again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously I am messing with the timeline. There's two reasons for this. 1: This is AU, so divergence makes sense, and 2: I don't own Thor and it's not currently on Netflix so I can't spot check and I've only seen the movie once.

Phil knew Darcy had taken an internship in the middle of the desert somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where.  It had all come together sloppily, and he was trying to keep his distance since that’s what it looked like Darcy wanted.  (And maybe it was what he had pushed her to decide when he took a job that had the potential to hurt his family.  It was for the best.  Sometimes the best hurt.) He had casually asked his mom if she knew where Darcy was, but all he got in response was a rant about how Darcy was wasting money pursuing a useless degree.  He imagined that physically putting distance between herself and their mother was a large reason why Darcy had shoved off to the desert.  

His fingers itched to do more research on her and make sure she was safe.  He knew she could take care of herself, but he was her older brother.  He had made a promise to himself and her that he would watch out for her, and lately her felt like he had been seriously slacking in that department. Whenever he felt himself becoming maudlin, he would go talk to Nick-the only person to know that Phil had any family at all.  Fury would smack him upside the head, remind him that Darcy had once been suspended for kneeing a kid in the balls for snapping her bra strap, and get him drunk while reassuring him that he had a sister that could take care of herself.

When he got sent to New Mexico, he didn’t think about the fact that he might run into Darcy.  Nearly 6% of the United States was desert.  That’s enough desert that a tiny random town that didn’t have an observatory was unlikely to be her current home.  He should have known better than to make assumptions like that.

“What the hell!” was the first thing he heard as he walked into what was being considered a lab space.  Something prickled at the back of his brain, but he ignored it.

“Seriously!  What the fuck!  That is not yours!”  He heard a smacking sound.  “Don’t touch!”

This time he did stop.  That sounded an awful lot like Darcy,

“Dude!  That is my iPod!  Not yours!”  He heard feet shuffling.  “Give.  It.  Back!”  Someone sat down in a chair roughly.  “Dude.  My brother gave me that,” she nearly whined.  “It’s the last thing he ever gave me,” she mumbled to herself.

Shit.

Phil pinched his nose as he considered his options.

“You okay there, boss?”  Clint asked him.

“Yeah, just fine,” Phil said without any emotion.   _Not good at all.  Terrible even._

“Sounds like the intern is giving them a hard time.”   _She hasn’t even gotten started giving anyone a hard time.  No one’s been assaulted yet._

“And now I need to go smooth it over,” Phil sighed.   _And hope she doesn’t assault **me**_ **.**  “I need you to supervise the loading while I talk to Dr. Foster and her intern.”

Clint gave a mock salute and wandered back out the door.

Phil braced himself.  Well this was about to go spectacularly wrong.  Might as well get it over with.

“Miss Lewis,” he said as he walked into the room, “I promise you will get these items back after we have looked over all the research.”

Darcy’s back was to him when he entered, but she had gone stiff when he started talking.

“Listen here Agent iPod Thief,” she started as she turned to face him.  Her eyes widened a bit as she took in just who she was talking to.  She paused and swallowed before she went on.  “I expect my iPod and all of Jane’s research back in good condition.  Not a single mark on a single machine.”  She came face to face with him and poked him in the chest.  “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Miss Lewis.  Your distaste for the proceedings has been noted.”

She looked around the room, taking in the agents doing their best to ignore the crazy intern.  “And you owe me some answers,” she whispered without looking at him.

Phil wanted to pat her head and tell her it would all be all right, but now wasn’t the time.  He wouldn’t put her in danger by making their connection obvious.

“If you would like to lodge a formal complaint, I have some forms in my car that I could give you,” he said instead of all the other thoughts that ran through his mind.

He couldn’t fault her ability to read a situation.  Anger flashed in her eyes and laced her words, but he knew she was just putting on a show.  “That’s exactly what I want to do mister!  I want my iPod back!  It was the last gift my brother gave me!”  He heard the hurt in the last statement.  An indictment.  He had sent her that when she finished her freshman year of college.

Phil sighed (also for show).  “This way Miss Lewis,” he said, walking out of the lab and into the sun, not bothering to see if she followed.

Of course she would.  She had a lot of questions, and he had all the answers.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters are a bit short right now. They'll slowly start getting longer. Also, I'm not sure that 6% is accurate, but it's the only number I found without doing math myself. "It's fiction," I told myself. "No one will care that much. Stop wasting time looking this up."


	4. Darcy Wants the Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Phil have a talk.

Darcy was about to lose her shit.  Not only were they taking all of Jane’s research (goodbye credits), but some asshole had the audacity to snatch her iPod straight from her hands.  She wanted to kick someone.  That was the last thing Phil had given her, and she wasn’t about to lose it to some government jack-booted thugs.  (He had inscribed on the back _Kick ass, take names, send them to me_.)  When she tried to grab it back, the agent had pushed her firmly into a chair and walked away.

“Miss Lewis,”a voice called behind her.  It sounded just like Phil.  She pushed away the thought.  It was just wishful thinking. “I promise you will get these items back after we have looked over all the research.”

Darcy’s anger burned deep in her gut.  How dare this jerk remind her of her absent brother?  (Rationally she knew that wasn’t his fault, but _she missed him_ _dammit_!)

“Listen here Agent iPod Thief,” she started as she turned to face him.  Her eyes widened a bit as she took in just who she was talking to. _HOLY SHIT_ , was all she could think when she saw Phil in front of her.  She paused and swallowed before she went on, willing herself to not wrap her arms around him and not let go.  “I expect my iPod and all of Jane’s research back in good condition.  Not a single mark on a single machine.”  She came face to face with him.  Might as well try to push the family connection to get Jane’s work back. She poked him in the chest.  “Do I make myself clear?”  

“Yes Miss Lewis.  Your distaste for the proceedings has been noted,” he said blandly.

She looked around the room, taking in the agents doing their best to ignore the situation.  Obviously there was plenty he wasn’t telling her.  If he wasn’t acknowledging that he knew her then she knew she had to keep that quiet.  She couldn’t help herself though.“And you owe me some answers,” she whispered without looking at him.

“If you would like to lodge a formal complaint, I have some forms in my car that I could give you,” he said.  She read the subtext.  This was where they could talk in private.

“That’s exactly what I want to do mister!  I want my iPod back!  It was the last gift my brother gave me!”  She couldn’t stop herself from adding the last part, from the sadness of the past few years coloring her words.

Phil sighed, much to her annoyance.  Even if it was for show, it still ruffled her feathers.  “This way Miss Lewis,” he said, walking out of the lab and into the sun, not bothering to see if she followed.

Of course she did.  She had a lot of questions, and he had all the answers.

She silently followed him to a black SUV with the windows deeply tinted. _Real subtle, government_ , she thought as he unlocked the doors and she climbed in.  Darcy sat with her arms across her chest, daring Phil to make the first move.  It took a few moments, but finally he started.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, looking down at his hands in his lap.  “I didn’t expect you to be here, but I am both glad and terrified that you are.”

“Terrified?”  She asked, confused.

“Darcy,” he said, turning toward her, “the world is changing and I don’t know if I can protect you from all these things that are currently undefined.  How can I protect you from things I can’t even imagine?”  She watched as the frustration bled into his face.  “I made a promise to protect you, to make the world safe for you.  How can I do that when there’s more than our poorly understood world out there?”  He stared at her, searching for answers in her face.

“You don’t need to protect me, Phil.  I can protect myself.”

“But I promised!”

“When?  When did you promise?”

Darcy was surprised to watch her brother turn red.  “It doesn’t matter,” he mumbled.

“Yes.  It does,” she pressed.

He looked out the window.  “I promised the first time I saw you.”

“Oh.  My.  God,” she laughed.  She didn’t mean to.  She just couldn’t help it.  “You are the cutest brother ever!”  She imagined 10 year old Phil holding her and making very serious and solemn promises.  It was just too much.

“You know, I didn’t want a sibling,” he said, still not looking at her.  She hit his arm.  “Really,” he said turning to her.  “I didn’t want a sister.  Or a brother.”  He paused.  “But, then I was holding you in the hospital, and none of that mattered anymore.  I wanted to protect you and I promised to do so.  Everything I’ve done since has been to protect you.”

“Even taking this job and not talking to me for nearly four years?”

He looked ashamed.  “Even that.  My job is very dangerous, Darce.  If anyone knew I had a sister, they might try to use you against me.”

“Then why take the job at all?”

“Because there are things like whatever this is in the world,” he said waving his hand at the window.  “I made sure you could take care of yourself so I could go out and make the world as a whole safer for you.”

“Are you happy?” She asked, very concerned about the answer.

“I am.  I really love this job.  And I’m good at it.”

“You must be.  You are clearly in charge.”

“How did you know?”

She almost laughed at him again.  “Phil, you’re in a suit and all the jack-booted thugs are in tactical gear.  Obviously you’re in charge.”

“Jack-booted thugs?” He asked, a smile pulling at his lips.

“Yes.  And if I didn’t hate them for taking my iPod, I might even comment on how hot some of them are.” She thought for a moment.  “Have you seen some of their arms, Phil?  Because I have.  I want to lick them.”

“Darcy!  I don’t need to hear this!”

“Sure you do, boss-man. You’re in charge.  Maybe you can hook me up.”

“No Darcy.”

“But Philllllllll….” she whined.

“I am not going to abuse my power like that.”

“Speaking of power,” she tried, “I now know you’re not the paper pusher I thought you were, so,  like, how much ass do you kick on the regular?”

“What?”

“You’re still in military shape.  That doesn’t just happen.”  She pulled at his sleeve.  “How many jackets have you busted while busting someone’s face?”

Phil sighed.

Darcy smiled.  It was nice to have her brother back.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have my reasons for mirroring the end of last chapter and the start of this chapter.


	5. Phil Needed That

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy lodges complaints.

Even though he sighed, Phil was happy to have his sister back.  It probably wasn’t the safest course of action, but it was the one that made them the happiest, so he would make it work.  He opened his briefcase and pulled out some papers.

“Here,” he said, shoving the papers into Darcy’s hands.

“What the hell is this?”

“Complaint forms.”

She looked at him for a moment and then burst out laughing.  “Right,” she said.  “The whole reason we came out here.”  Suddenly her face was serious.  “Are you really worried about even your team knowing?”

“Yes and no,” he said.  “Yes because there’s always the possibility of someone using the information to get themselves out of a tight spot.  Yes because I could get pulled out of here because of a conflict of interest.  But no because I do trust a few of them completely.  I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“I get it,” she said, chewing on her lip.  “It’s cool.”  

Clearly it wasn’t.

“I know it’s not ideal, but it really is safest if we keep this quiet for now.”

“It’s not that exactly,” she said, waving away his comments. “It’s just that I’m worried I’ll slip up and ruin everything.”

“You didn’t mess up in the lab today,” he said.  “You didn’t acknowledge that you knew me at all.  Your instincts are good.  I taught you, so they should be.  Now get out of my car and complain about me to Foster really loud so everyone knows how pissed you are about all this.”

“On one condition,” she said, suddenly smiling with a strange glint in her eye.  He didn’t like that look.

“What’s the condition?”

“I want you to use a curse word when describing me to a lackey.  And I want to hear you do it.”

“Why would you want that?”

She shrugged.  “You were always so proper around me.  I wanna hear you curse.  Plus, I think you doing it in a suit will be funny.  Even funnier when you say it to a baby agent because I assume you don’t normally curse around them either.  Being a good role model and all that.”

He shook his head but agreed.  “Only for you Darcy-bear.”

She groaned.  “You haven’t called me that in forever, Captain.”

“I had that coming, didn’t I?”

“Sure did,” she said as she hopped out of the car.  “And you can expect this paperwork tomorrow morning, asshat!” She yelled as she slammed the car door shut and stormed away.  He looked fondly at the shut door.  She was always able to play a part at the drop of a hat.  She was all emotion all the time, always trying to get a rise out of him.  Even seasoned agents had nothing on childhood Darcy.  If he could keep his face neutral no matter what she did, no one else stood a chance.

***

The next morning Phil stood placidly in the lab as he waited for Dr. Foster so he could talk to her about some of the data she had collected.  However, it was Darcy that wandered in, half awake with a cup of coffee that looked more like a mixing bowl with a handle.

“You!” she yelled when she saw him, putting down her coffee cup and storming over to a table.  She grabbed a handful of papers and thrust them at him.

“Consider my complaints lodged!” she bellowed as she poked him in the chest.  “I want our things back unharmed!” she exclaimed as she walked away.

“Will Dr. Foster be in soon?” he asked, unfazed.

“I’m not telling you jerks a damn thing!” She called from the kitchen area.

Phil turned to Clint.  “Has she been this much of a shit all morning?” he asked blandly.  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Darcy twitch a bit, in amusement, he hoped.

Clint barked out a bit of laughter, but then cut it off as Phil continued to stare him down.  “Wouldn’t know sir.  This is the first I’ve seen of her.”

Phil nodded and turned away, heading to a chair to look over the papers Darcy had handed him.  They actually appeared to be filled out, and he was curious what she had written.  He was amused to see that it was, indeed, a formal complaint about anyone and everyone (except himself).  But the best part was tucked near the end of the packet.  In between several pages, Darcy had placed an original Captain America trading card.  One that was missing from his set.  The sticky note attached to the protective sleeve simply read:   _Oh Captain, My Captain!  I’ve been carrying this with me for the last year, just in case I ran into you or suddenly had an address to mail it to.  Happy everything.  Love, Bear._


	6. Darcy Doesn't Want to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, fire spewing space robots is a thing.

Darcy Lewis was fairly certain she was about to die.  Phil was going to be so very, very mad at her.  A demon sky robot was trying to kill her (well, everyone really) with its fire eyes.  (Though maybe it wasn’t the eyes?  She wasn’t really sure if it was fair to call them eyes when it was really more like a fire pit for a head.)  She didn’t have many abilities, but she did her best to help people get to safety, somewhere away from the tin can with an attitude.  She also may have liberated a few animals from the pet store because 1) they didn’t piss off RoboCop, and 2) they were totally defenseless if she didn’t open the cages.  (Also, maybe a small part of her was hoping that one of the dogs would end up not being able to go back to the destroyed pet store and BAM-free dog for Team Stars!)

Of course, to get a free dog she would need to be alive, so there was that.  She tried really hard to imagine what Phil would do, realized he would be trying to stop the flaming megazord, and then laughed a little that he would yell at her for doing the same.  

She hid between two buildings while she tried to figure out a weak point she could exploit.  She got the feeling that this was some sort of terminator style robot, so water probably wouldn’t put out its eternal flame.  It seemed to really hate Thor and his friends, so that was a thing.  None of these facts were helpful, of course, but it was stuff she hadn’t known before assessing the situation.  She resigned herself to the fact that she couldn’t do much of anything.

She joined Jane and the others when everything died down a bit.  And then Thor, stupid, beautiful Thor, had to go and get himself….

Not killed.  He was totally not killed.  HOLY SHIT was that armor impressive.  And the arms! She already knew that, but still.  Might as well enjoy the candy because either Thor was going to win (and she would try super hard not to look at him like that again for Jane’s sake), or they were all going to die, and she might as well die happy.  So, yeah.  Arms.

When everything was said and done, Darcy was never happier than when she saw that Phil was fine too.  His stupid black “this is totally a government” car was a welcome sight.  Even more so when he got out.  It took everything she had not to run over to him and check for cuts and bruises.  Instead she stood to the side and tried not to look awkward while did his job.

It took some patience, but finally she was able to catch Phil’s eye for a moment.  She made sure he saw her slip around the corner of a building.  She waited almost fifteen minutes, but finally Phil was there, hugging her so tight she wasn’t sure that she could breathe.

“Mghhrrp!”

Phil let up a bit, “What was that?” he asked, not actually letting go.

“Can’t. breathe,” Darcy exaggerated.

Phil just laughed.  “Bear, I was so worried I wasn’t going to see you again.”

“You totally won’t if you keep smothering me!”

He pulled her tight again.  “I’ve gotta get back to work before someone notices,” he said softly.  “But I’ll be sure to see you again before we pack up.”  He pulled back from the hug, arms still on her shoulders.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said as he ruffled her hair and turned to walk away.

“Go do your thing, Cap.  I’ll be here.”

Darcy watched his retreating form and then wandered the back way out of the alley.  It was probably past time to feed Jane.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be finished up yesterday, but there were issues (and not with my writing). Yesterday I was doing laundry and all of a sudden the drain line started erupting water EVERYWHERE. Gallons of it. I was able to turn the washer off, but then I had to clean up all the water and finish washing my laundry by hand (which took nearly two hours). The property manager said a plumber would be coming today, so HOPEFULLY that's the case.


	7. Phil is found Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That alley wasn't as empty as they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters today to make up for the length/not posting yesterday.

Phil walked out of the alley and expertly around Clint’s feet what were jutted out as he leaned against the building.

“Soooo,” Clint drawled, “you and the intern?”  His eyebrow quirked up.

_Of course someone saw_ , Phil thought.   _At least it was Clint._

“Just what are you implying, Agent Barton?”

“Nothing much, just that you seemed awfully happy to see her alive.  You practically had her in a death grip,” Clint said as he followed Phil down the street.

Phil looked around to see what options he had.  Up ahead was a building that was probably empty since it had clearly been hit by fire.  He ducked in and Clint followed.

“Can I trust you?” Phil asked, already knowing the answer.

“Of course boss,” Clint answered immediately, straightening himself up to match the serious tone Phil had put on.

“What you saw isn’t what you think it was.”

“Really?” Clint asked, genuinely confused.

“What did you think was happening?”

“I thought you were happy that she was okay,” Clint started, “and I assume there’s a relationship of some sort there.”  Clint paused there, but Phil knew he wasn’t done, so he waited it out.  Eventually Clint added, “I don’t think you’re the fling sort, and the hug didn’t look like that, but you’ve got to be together.”

“No, Clint, we don’t.  Not in that way.”

“Enlighten me, sir?”

Phil looked around, double checking that they were truly alone.  “Miss Lewis is my sister,” he finally said quietly.

Clint’s eyes grew large at the information. He choked out, “Didn’t know you had a sister, Phil.”

“No one does.  That’s the point.  That’s how I keep her safe.”

“But why come here at all if you knew she would be here?  Another agent could have handled the hammer when it first arrived.”

“I didn’t know she was here,” Phil admitted.  “I had cut her off to try and keep her safe.”

Clint was looking at Phil closely now.  “She didn’t know what you did, did she?”

“Not until I walked into that lab, no.”

Clint started laughing huge guffaws.  “Are you sure your life isn’t some sort of sitcom, Phil?  Because that sounds like one.”

“Fairly certain,” Phil said dryly.  “I can count on you, right?” Phil asked seriously,

“Of course, sir.  I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks Clint,” he said, slapping Clint on the shoulder.

“Oh mannnnn,” Clint sighed as they walked out of the building.  “You called her a little shit yesterday!”

 

 


	8. Darcy Talks to Jane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane has some questions or Darcy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took a zillion times longer than I thought it would. Sorry about that!

Darcy entered the lab as quietly as possible, but it just wasn’t quiet enough.  

“Where have you been!” Jane shrieked.  “I was so worried!  You were there one minute and gone the next!”

“I just needed to check on something.  Make sure it was okay after all that,” Darcy said.  It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly telling Jane the truth either.

“You’re hiding something from me,” Jane said, eyes narrowing as she looked Darcy over.

_Of course Jane can tell when I’m not telling her something.  It’s like a gift.  Or a curse.  Depends on the day._

“I’m not hiding something, Jane.”  Darcy said smoothly.  “I’m simply not telling you something.”

“That’s the same thing as hiding something Darcy,” Jane said, exasperated.

“Not exactly.  You know there’s something I’m not saying, and I’m not denying it.  If I was, then I’d be hiding something.  But I’m not.”

“Ugh.  You are so clearly a poli-sci major,” Jane said with mock disgust.  “Are you sure you aren’t a politician?”

“Maybe that’s what I’m not telling you.  Maybe I had to step aside to make a call to my office to discuss having a policy on aliens.  I like to be proactive about the issues.”

Jane just laughed.  “Fine Darce, keep your secrets.  I’m here if you need me, though.”

“And that’s why I love you,” Darcy said, hugging Jane from behind.  “Now tell me when you last ate.”

“Darcy!”

“I’m taking that as you don’t remember,” Darcy said, moving from Jane to the kitchenette.  “C’mere.  Let me make you lunch.”

“But…”

“Whatever you’re about to say can wait.  The town almost exploded and we all nearly died.  Food now.  Everything else later.”

Jane came and sat down while Darcy threw together some sandwiches.  Pop tarts wouldn’t be enough after what they had survived.

“What do you think about getting a dog?” Darcy asked, trying to fill the quiet.

“What?’

“One of those mammals that people keep as pets?”

“Why would we get a dog?”

“Because they’re awesome?”

“I am not taking care of the dog when you get tired of it.”

“So is that a yes, mom?”

“Don’t call me mom.”

“So that’s a yes.”

“Darcy!”

“Yes Jane?”

“Eat your sandwich.”

“Yes mom.”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT.”

***

The next morning Jane was up well before Darcy.  When Darcy walked into the lab Jane was already staring at the coffee maker and hitting it with her hand.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa Janey.  What’s wrong?”

“This stupid coffeemaker is just spraying boiling water everywhere!  I can’t get it to work!”  Jane turned to Darcy.  “Why can’t I make it work?  I made all my machines!  Why can’t I fix a coffeemaker?!”

“Okay,” Darcy said guiding Jane to a chair.  “You can’t fix it because you have an intern.  Coffee machines are the domain of interns.”

“But I could fix it before,” Jane whined.

“That’s because you didn’t have an intern before.  You transferred all coffee related powers to me.”

“That means you can never leave me.  I can’t survive without coffee.”

“I would never leave you!” Darcy answered fiercely as she fiddled with a side panel on the machine.

“Is that so?” Jane asked in a tone that made Darcy nervous.

“Of course it is.  How could I ever leave you?  You’d waste away without me!  I can’t have that!”

“Not even for Cap?” Jane asked innocently.

Darcy froze. _What.  The.  Fuck_.  “What?” Darcy asked, trying to play it off.

“You know, Cap,” Jane said, like that clarified anything.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“How can I when I don’t know what Cap is?” Darcy tried.

“Not ‘what,’ Darcy, ‘who.’  So try again.”

“Like….Captain America?” Darcy said.  Technically it wasn’t inaccurate.  Mr. Spangle Pants was where the name came from.

“Didn’t sound like it.”

Darcy sighed.  “How about you just tell me what’s really going on here because I’m super lost Jane.”

Jane gave Darcy an “I’m not impressed” look, but answered anyway.  “Last night you kept mumbling about ‘Cap’ in your sleep.  You kept saying things like, ‘Cap look out!’ and ‘I’m going with you Cap.’  So I ask again, who is Cap?”

Darcy looked nervously around the lab.  “Not here.  This place is probably bugged,” she finally said.

“Bugged?”

“Yeah, I don’t think they just took your equipment,” Darcy said, fiddling some more with the coffee machine.  “This thing needs some more work.  Why don’t we go to the diner and get coffee this morning?”

“And then you’ll tell me?”

“And then I’ll tell you.”

Darcy grabbed her jacket and bag.  Mornings were still a bit crisp in the desert.  By the time she had coffee she wouldn’t need it anymore, but she would want it on their way over.

As they walked out the door, Darcy searched carefully for tails and others that might be watching them. Darcy debated when to tell Jane.  Was it better to do it while they were walking and there was no one nearby to hear, but there was also no competing noise, or to tell her in the diner where there would be competing noise, but someone might overhear?  Eventually she decided to wait for the diner simply because she had thought about it took long and they were basically there.

They sat down and ordered coffee.  Darcy checked her wallet and noticed a $20 bill with a sticky note.  She ordered some waffles and read the note. _Eat something that didn’t come out of a box, Bear._  Well consider that mission accomplished, then.

“Sooooo?” Jane asked once their coffee arrived.  “Why were you worried about them hearing?”

Darcy played with her mug, twisting it in her hands.  “I just don’t want the government to know personal stuff, ya know?  Especially not super shady agencies.”

Jane hummed her agreement as she sipped her coffee.  Darcy’s waffles arrived, but Jane was staring at Darcy expectantly.

“So Cap,” Darcy starts.  “Cap’s my brother.”

“You have a brother?” Jane stage whispers, shocked.  “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“It didn’t come up,” Darcy shrugged.

“I swear I asked you about your family.”

“There’s a decent chance I lied,” Darcy said honestly.

“Why would you lie to me?”

“Because I don’t like to talk about them.  It’s easier to say I don’t have any.”

“So what’s the deal with the brother then?  And ‘Cap’?”

“So, ‘Cap’ was my nickname for him.  That’s what I usually called him.  My mom hated it.”

“Why?”

“Because even when he went to college he was still obsessed with Captain America and the Howling Commandos.  She thought it was childish.”

“I think it’s adorable,” Jane said as though no arguments would be allowed.

“Thanks Janey.  I thought so too.”

“So why were you dreaming about him?”

“Ehhh, I think that’s a function of us almost dying yesterday.”

“Jane nodded sagely.  “That’s why I was up so early.  I kept having nightmares.”

“Jane!  You should have told me.”

“Why?  Why should I wake you up because I can’t sleep?”

“Because I am your intern and I am supposed to take care of you!  I would have rubbed your back or done something else comforting to help you sleep.”

Jane smiled.  “And that’s why you can’t leave me.”

“Exactly,” Darcy said, digging into her waffles.  Hopefully she could change the direction of the conversation and Jane would never realize she hadn’t asked where Cap was now.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's the sitch: I should have another chapter on Sunday, but then things might get a little slow again. I'm a gamemaker for this year's FYA Showdown, and we start Monday. I'm not sure how much time that's going to take, but I assume I'll have a bit of a learning curve.
> 
> (FYA Summer Showdown info here: http://foreveryoungadult.com/2015/05/21/yasummershowdown-2015-announcement OR check out our hub tumblr here: http://fyasummershowdown.tumblr.com )


	9. Phil and the iPod

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to return the iPod for the last little bit of New Mexico.

Phil was supervising the delivery of equipment and materials that were being returned to Dr. Foster.  When he had arrived, Dr. Selvig had no idea where the girls were, had gone to make coffee, realized the machine wasn’t working, and had declared that they were probably out getting coffee so they could function.  Phil wondered about Darcy.  Their last real conversation had happened nearly four years ago when she was a freshman.  Back then she didn’t have a coffee dependence, and had actually asked him how he could stand the stuff.  So much had happened in those intervening years.  Developing a need for coffee was such a small thing.  What other things had changed that he had missed out on?

“Everything all right, sir?” Clint asked next to him.

“Just fine,” Phil said automatically.

Clint looked at him silently for a moment.  “No you’re not,” he finally said.

Phil turned to look at him.  “Excuse me?”

“You’re not fine,” Clint responded immediately.  “Something is bothering you.”

“It’s nothing,” Phil dismissed.

“It’s not nothing if it bothers you,” Clint said.  And then he added, “You don’t need to tell me.  Just wanted you to know I could tell.”

Phil nodded at Clint and then turned his eyes back to the room in front of him.  His hand went to the iPod in his pocket.  He stroked it carefully.  He had copied everything over to a hard drive so he could check her music out later.  While it was downloading, he had flipped through her playlists and nearly choked when he saw one titled “Weeds in the Garden.”  When Darcy was young, they had used the idea of a garden as code for how things were going.  If they were on the phone, he would ask about her garden.  If things were fine, she would say something positive about her garden, and something negative when they were bad.  One time she told him her garden was on fire and he had driven home that night.  When she got asked to her first high school dance, she said her garden was overflowing with flowers.  The playlist was clearly for times when things weren’t good.  He had clicked on it to see what songs she had.  He didn’t think he had expectations for the playlist, but when it was full of songs that they used to sing together as well as songs they had shared in letters when he had left home, he hadn’t been prepared for that.  He had sat at his desk trying hard not to cry.  He made a note to see if one of his techs could figure out how often she listened to it.

“Coulson?”

“Yes?” Phil said, startled even though it didn’t show.

“You sorta zoned out there,” Clint said.

“I assume this means you want me to talk about it.”

“Nah,” Clint answered easily, “not unless you want to.”

Phil considered talking to Clint.  “I’m just wondering how much I missed,” Phil finally said, waiting to see what Clint would make of that.

Clint didn’t speak for a while.  Phil knew he was going to answer, so he stayed quiet.  Finally Clint said, “The only way to know how much you missed is to learn it all so you can quantify it.”

“That’s damn insightful,” Phil said.

Clint smirked.  “Does knowing your secrets mean I get all your cursing too?”

Phil gave a little sigh.  He was annoyed at himself for slipping so much.  At least it was only around Barton.

“Enjoy it while you can.  This has been a surprisingly trying few days.”

Clint nodded but didn’t say anything.  If he was going to speak, his opportunity was cut short when Phil heard some shouting outside.  

“Can you find out what’s going on out there and deal with them?”

“Yes sir,” Clint said, walking back into the sunny street.  Phil heard Clint start to yell, and he knew Clint would have everything in hand.  He turned his attention back to the room.  One of the agents all but dropped one of the machines onto the floor.

“Excuse you!” He heard before he could yell himself.  “But watch what the hell you’re doing with those machines!”  He watched Darcy and Dr. Foster enter the lab.  Darcy’s eyes sought him, and then she yelled, “You guys are paying to replace any damage that happens to our stuff.  Do you understand?  This shit is expensive, and we don’t get that much grant money.”

“Understood, Miss Lewis,” he said dryly.

“I assume I have to fill out paperwork for that bullshit too,” Darcy muttered as she walked by.

“Of course there’s paperwork to requisition items that need replacing due to negligence,” Phil said somewhat loudly.  Even louder he added, “And that money will be coming from the paychecks of those responsible.”  Darcy looked mollified by this and guided Jane over to the recently dropped machine.  As Jane got to work, Darcy wandered over to a cabinet and pulled out a toolbag.  She sat next to Jane, handing her items before Jane could ask for them.  Phil wondered how quickly all of this had come to Darcy; how hard she had to work to be able to anticipate Jane’s needs.  Still so much he didn’t know.

He wandered outside where he found Clint staring down some agents.

“Is there a problem here, Agent Barton?”

“I’m hoping there’s not anymore,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the man he was staring at.  “Is there?”

The other man looked disgusted, but spit out, “No problem,” as he turned back to the truck that the equipment was coming out of.

“What was that about?”

“He felt the need to comment on the local eye candy,”

“And?”

“And he might have said something Lewis overheard,”

“And?”

“And she might have kneed him in the crotch,”

“And?”

“And he might have called her a bitch,”

“And?”

“And I might have yelled a few choice words back at him.  Might have also threatened disciplinary action.”

“Well, there will need to be if she decides to fill out the paperwork.”

“I wonder how she’d know that,” Clint said smiling.

“How indeed.  She already plans to requisition some new parts due to some dropped equipment.  The forms will probably end up stuck to the ones she is asking for.”

“Devious.”

“No,” Phil said, “just one of those things that seems to happen.  I think the others call it karma?”

“Did you figure out your information problem?” Clint asked, changing the subject.

“Not sure how I’m going to get it,” Phil admitted.

“You do know there are such things as burner phones and fake email addresses, right?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

Clint turned to look at Phil.  “Really?  But we use them all the time.”

“I never thought about using them for anything but work.”

Phil was certain that he heard Clint mutter, “Idiot,” under his breath, but he didn’t comment.  Instead, he turned to go back inside.  “Let me know if there are any more difficulties out here,” he called as he walked and typed on the iPod he had just pulled from his pocket.

Back inside, Jane and Darcy were finishing up with the machine, and Darcy was moving back to the coffee maker.

“Miss Lewis?” Phil called.

Darcy scowled but walked over.  

“I believe this is yours,” he said, handing over the iPod.  

Darcy took it from him and carefully ran her hands over it, inspecting each inch.  When she seemed satisfied, he added, “I think you should take a bit more care with what you leave in the notes.”

She gave him a quizzical look, but dutifully opened the notes.  He could tell the minute she saw what he had added.

“Yeah, well, thanks for not hurting this like Jane’s machines,” she said, pocketing the device.

“We do try to be careful with things we are fond of,” he said as he walked away.

 


	10. Darcy Has a Request

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy calls Phil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we will match up with the one-shot this idea came from. Some of the original text has been altered

Darcy stared at her phone.  Jane had told her to plan some time off, and she wasn’t about to say no, but she also wasn’t sure just what to do.  She didn’t want to head back to Culver (send my diploma in the mail pls kthanxbai), and she sure as shit wasn’t going to go back to Wisconsin.  She could hang out in town, but that wasn’t much of a vacation either.  She mindlessly scrolled through her phone, considering her options.  She hovered over "Cap" and pressed send before she could think about it.

“Coulson.”

“Agent Brother!  How goes it?”

“Darcy?”

“Yup!”

“How did you get this number?”

“Does it matter?”

“Maybe.  I might have to shoot someone.”

“You left it with Jane, idiot.  In case we had anything more to share with you.”

“Oh, right.”

Darcy sighed.

“Are you in trouble? Is that why you’re calling?  How is your garden?”

She huffed a bit but said, “The garden is lovely this time of year.”

“I know you think it’s foolish, but code phrases can be useful.  So, no trouble.  What’s this call for, then?  Is it actually business?”

“Can’t a little sister pester her brother without needing a reason?”

“Isn’t that how it always is?” She could hear the smile in his voice, though she was positive it wasn’t on his face.  Her brother was scarily good at looking stoic.

“Look, do you have time right now for an actual conversation or is this a bad time?”

“I always have time for you, Bear.”

“How about this:  Will someone get injured in the next ten minutes if you’re talking to me instead of doing your job?  Will a small nation fall?  Will aliens arrive on Earth...again?”

“No, Darcy.  I’m just doing some paperwork.  We can talk.”

“Okay.  Here’s the deal.  I want to visit.”

“Are you sure you’re not in trouble?”

“No, I’m not.  It’s just...well, I miss you.  Like, I get that we’re not as close as we could be because of the whole trying to protect me thing, but, I dunno.  Our totally secret time in New Mexico made me think that I should enjoy the things I like in life and, brother, that, surprisingly. includes you.  Your job is dangerous.  I don’t want to have regrets later on.”

“And this has nothing to do with how hot my ‘jackbooted thugs’ are?”

“Captain!  You wound me!”

“Darcy?”

“No, Phil, it doesn’t.  I was actually having a moment of sincerity there with you.”

He chuckled softly.  “Fine.  when do you want to come?”

“Did you know there’s a National Sibling’s Day?”

“You are the strangest child.”

“Phiiiiiiil.”

“Book the flight and send me the details.  I promise to make time for you.”

“Best. Brother. Ever.”

“Obviously.  I’m your only brother.”

“Thor calls me his shield sister.”

“That doesn’t count because, according to the government, Thor does not currently exist.  Besides, he’s not even on plant right now.”

“That you know of.”

“Darcy….”

“Fine  He’s not here and you’re the best.  But mark my words, if Captain America turns out to be alive I am totally transferring all favorite brother awards to him”

“That’s fine,” Phil said breezily, “I’ll be transferring all my favorite sister awards to him as well  He’ll be our best sibling.”

“That’s not how this works.  You only get to transfer best sister stuff to Bucky!”

“You know,” Phil said conversationally, “technically Captain America could still be alive.  No one ever found his body.”

“Yeah, and following that logic Bucky could be too, hot shot.”

“I guess that means your title is safe for now.”

“Since you’re my only brother, that means you’re also my worst brother.”

“You better be nice or I won’t buy you a plane ticket.”

“Why am I booking the flight if you’re paying?”

“Because I don’t know your schedule, but I do know you hacked my credit card.”

“I would never!”

“Want to explain the flowers that I paid for that arrived at my house, then?”

“I didn’t hack.  I pick pocketed you and memorized the card number.”

“Worst.  Sister.  Ever.”

“I’m sticking my tongue out at you. Can you hear it?”

“Very mature, Darcy.”

“Just like you are.”

“Yes, well, I do need to go now since you’re a secret and all.  I can’t say I was late to a debriefing because I was talking to my sister.”

“Just say you were talking to your Bear.  When people try to question you, just look them dead in the eye and say I’m an animal.  Anyone who actually knows me knows that isn’t a lie.”

“Goodbye Bear.”

“Later Cap.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to have eleven done today too, but now i'm not sure. Might still happen.


	11. Phil Can't Avoid Clint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint has some questions for Phil.

Phil hung up the phone only to see Barton standing in his doorway.

“Bear?” he asked, his lips quirking up.

Phil said nothing, but raised an eyebrow.

“You’re kidding, right?  What does she call you?”

“What does who call me?”

“Bear.”

“Oh very funny Barton.”

“C’mon!  If you call her ‘Bear,’ her name for you has to be just as ridiculous.”

“Still not sure what you’re talking about Barton.”

Clint gave in.  “Okay, what does Darcy call you?”

“Something related to ‘Bear,’” Phil said smiling.

“You jerk!  There’s no context!  You could be ‘Tiger’ or ‘Teddy’ or….or….or something else!”

“I know.  Now, I believe we have a briefing to get to,” Phil said as he led Clint out of his office.

“Awww, Phil,”  Clint sighed.  “I’m just curious about her.”

Phil wanted to stop in the hallway and interrogate Clint about that statement, but it wasn’t the time or place.  Instead he said (casually, he hoped), “Why is that?”

“She just seemed cool, and if you like her she has to be pretty awesome,” Clint said almost too smoothly.  Phil thought it sounded a bit rehearsed.

“I have to like her, Clint.”

“Nahhh, I don’t think that’s how it works.  I think people tell you that you have to, but that doesn’t mean you actually do have to.”

“Do you ever listen to yourself?”

“Are you trying to change the topic, sir?”

Phil sighed.  “No, we just shouldn’t be talking about this here.”

Clint smiled. “Cool.  How about I bring by some of that fancy beer that you like tonight and we watch _Super Nanny?_ ”

“Your willingness to bribe this much leaves me very concerned.”

“What are you bribing him for?” Maria asked as they entered the room.

“Just to let me finally have an op where the extraction plan isn’t ‘run and pretend you’re deaf,’ which is insulting because I _am_ deaf.”

“Then it shouldn’t be hard to pretend,” Phil teased.

“And this is not your lucky op,” Maria added as she handed out the paperwork.

***

Clint settled onto the couch next to Phil, handing him a beer.  They sat next to each other quietly as Phil flipped on the TV.

“Soooooo…” Clint said awkwardly, drawing out the “o.”

“So indeed,” said Phil, wanting to make Clint work for it.

“Tell me about your sister,” Clint said, just as awkwardly.

“Her name is Darcy,” Phil said.

Clint waited, but realized that Phil wasn’t planning on saying more.

“Do you have to make this so hard?” Clint whined.

“Why should I make it easy?  I’m still not sure why you’re interested in hearing about her at all  So let’s start there.  Why _are_ you interested?”

Clint rearranged himself on the couch, reluctant to answer.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know just as soon as I know why you’re interested,” Phil said, luring Clint in.

“I just think she seemed pretty cool  Like, she wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone, and she totally tased Thor’s ass, and she was secretly running that ship.”

“So it’s not because she’s pretty?”

“Are you allowed to say your sister is pretty?”

“Of course I am, though I try not to say it to her too much because it goes to her head,” Phil said, remembering how a young Darcy had scowled at an older woman who had called her “ordinary” looking, then yelled at her that “Cap” thought she was beautiful.

“So, yeah.  That’s why I’m interested,” Clint said as Phil refocused on him.

“You didn’t answer my question.  Is it, or is it not because she’s pretty?”

“I mean….no?”

“So you don’t think she’s pretty?”

“That’s not what I said!  Of course she’s pretty.  She’s like, smoking hot, but, like it’s way more than her body, it’s her personality too.  And awwww brain!  Why did we just talk about how hot Phil’s sister is?”

Phil smiled.  “Now that we’ve got that cleared up, what do you want to know about her?”

“Let’s start with what Bear calls you,” Clint smirked, getting back at Phil.

This was going to be a long night.  And possibly a mistake.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So is it..cannon that Phil likes SuperNanny? I just remember reading it once and it's never left my brain,


	12. Darcy Meets Clint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint picks Darcy up at the airport.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay friends, time for my Iron Man 2 story!
> 
> Once IM2 came out on DVD, the husband and I decided to rent it because we missed it in theaters. We took the DVD home and got straight to watching it. Except, maybe 20 minutes in, the movie kept skipping. So we pulled it out and tried to fix the disc and all that fun stuff. We spent nearly an hour trying to make it work. We thought we had it fixed, but NOPE. We weren't allowed to see any more. So we went back to the video store (which was close to closing) and were like, "Hey, this DVD isn't working right." They decided this was our fault somehow and tried to force us to pay for the broken DVD. We were having none of that, so we took the broken DVD back home with us, and tried again in the morning with a different manager. This manager was a lot nicer, but they were all out of copies, so we weren't going to be able to exchange for another one to finish watching it. The husband and I decided the movie was cursed and NEVER WATCHED THE REST. And this, friends, is why I had to ask about Super Nanny.

Flights were, legit, the worst.  Darcy  hated all the people that insisted a 500 pound piece of luggage the size of Vermont was a carry on.  She despised the men who always ended up next to her, leering at her but also talking about how she reminded them of their daughter.  (Gross.)  She couldn’t stand that she always looked like a rumpled mess by the end of it.  Flying across the country on the red-eye?  Worse than all of that.  Those flights always had middling business men that thought they were a bigger deal than they were that got drunk on overpriced liquor.  Those flights always made her wish she could fly with a taser. As she deplaned, she decided that if her brother didn’t fully appreciate what she did for him, she might punch him.

When she finally got to the baggage claim (which had taken forever because this airport was HUGE), she scanned the crowd for him.  He had promised to pick her up (and she promised to stop sending him little treats with his own credit card).  As she scanned, she looked for his tell-tale suit and overall bland persona.  Her eyes locked on him.  He was looking the wrong way like some sort of idiot.  Wasn’t he supposed to be better aware of his surroundings?  She took off running at his back.

“Phiiiiiiil!” She cried as she leapt at his back, wrapping her arms around his waist.

He clearly had not been expecting that because they both crashed to the ground.  Darcy was laughing wildly when Phil turned around to look at her and…..this was not her brother.

“Oh my god!  Oh shit!  Sorry!  I thought you were my brother!  I swear.  I don’t normally tackle people in the airport!  Are you okay?  Whoa.  You have, like, amazing arms.  Look, I’m sorry for knocking you down, but I am not sorry about meeting you.”

The man beneath her huffed.  He looked vaguely familiar.  Did she know him?

“Dude!  I said sorry!  It was an honest mistake!”

That’s when she realized he wasn’t angry.  He was laughing.

“I wondered why he insisted I wear a suit to pick you up.  Do you always knock out guys?”

She looked down at him.  “Phrase.  Give it now.”  She was fairly certain this man was sent by her brother, but Phil had impressed upon her how important it was to be cautious.  

“Aren’t you a cute kitten?” he said between laughs. (And boy was she going to have words with Phil about that phrase now that a perfectly lickable specimine was saying it to her while laughing.)

Darcy relaxed against him.  He was built, he could handle her weight (and she could handle him handling her. “Cool.  Oh. and we should probably get off the floor.  People are staring.”  Not that Darcy cared too much.  Let the strangers think she and hottie were a thing.

Darcy got up first, giving the man a hand to help him up.  Once they were both upright she turned to the baggage claim, scanning for her bag and said, “So, where’s my brother?”

“Got called into a meeting.  He sent me, but made me put on a suit before I left.  This thing is terrible.  I don’t know how he does it all the time.”

“It’s like his armour.  It works for him, but you do look pretty miserable.”  She stuck out her hand, “I’m Darcy.”

He took her hand and pulled her in close to him.  “I’m Clint, and don’t think I’ve forgotten that you said you weren’t sorry for meeting me,” he whispered in her ear, hot breath making her shiver a bit.  “And I know who you are.”

“Oh, you and I are going to get along famously,” she whispered back, grabbing his ass before straightening up to grab her bag off the belt..  As she picked it up, the rest of his words processed.  She looked him up and down.  “You’re a jackbooted thug!” She cried.

“I prefer ‘senior agent,’” Clint said smiling.

“Phil is SO DEAD.  Like, I’m going to make him choke on that card I bought him.”

“Why are you wishing bodily harm on your brother?” Clint asked as he took her bag from, her and started moving toward the parking garage.

“I told him I found several of his ‘senior agents’ to be positively lickable and here you are-hot arms and all, greeting me instead of him.  I smell set-up.”

“And was I one of those agents you found ‘lickable’?” Clint asked with a broad smile.

“Ummmmm, I’m not sure if I can ask you if you were in the same place as me because if you weren’t that might be classified and I signed a metric ton of paperwork that says I can’t talk about it.  I swear to god Phil loves paperwork more than me, which means a lot because there’s no way he doesn’t love me if he sent you to pick me up.  His list probably goes: Paperwork, Captain America, Me. And I should shut up now.  Oh my god. Why didn’t you stop me when I started rambling about embarrassing things?”

“Let me try this in order:  I was in New Mexico so we can talk about that; he does love paperwork, but I don’t think it rates higher than you; Captain America might be tied with you; and I didn’t stop you because it was nice to listen to someone else ramble longer than they should have.  That’s usually me.”

“Agents don’t ramble embarrassingly.”

“You only think that because Coulson is your brother.  You don’t have enough experience with agents to know he’s not the norm.”

“Oh, Cap is plenty embarrassing, you just must not know all the details.  And I hope I’m about to get some more experience with agents,”  Darcy said with a wicked smile, “I mean, I’d really love for this trip to broaden my horizons.”

Clint tripped a bit and Darcy counted that as a success.

“So you didn’t actually answer my question,” Clint said, recovering nicely.

“Which question is that?”

“Actually, I have several now, but we’ll talk in the car,” Clint said as he opened the door for her and then went to put her bags in the trunk.

As Clint slid into the driver’s seat, Darcy leaned over and licked his cheek.  “Yup, definitely lickable,” she said, trying hard not to laugh.  

Clint wasn’t as successful, he burst into barks of laughter.  “Well that answers that question,” he said between laughs.

 


	13. Phil is Unsure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil watches Clint and Darcy together and now he's not sure his choice was as smart as he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been deep cleaning the house as I prepare for some out of town guests. It is EXHAUSTING trying to get the red dust out of everything. I have most of 14 done also, so I'll try to have that up in the next 24 hours. Cheers!

Phil watched Darcy mow down Clint from a bench where he was sitting in hoodie and baseball cap.  This had to be one of his better ideas.  If Clint wanted to know Darcy, what better way than to spend some time with her.  That should cure him of any further interest.  Darcy was a……”handful” is the word that came to mind.  He loved her, but she could be a lot to take in.  He watched as she helped him up and started watching for her bag.  Darcy must have been introducing herself as she held out her hand for him to shake.  Phil watched, unclear what was happening when Clint pulled her close and whispered to her.  Maybe he was telling her he was authorized to pick her up?  But then Darcy’s hands wandered to Clint’s ass and suddenly Phil was concerned.  Clint didn’t seem to mind, and that might be a problem.

Several hours later Phil no longer thought introducing Clint and Darcy was a problem; he _knew_ it was a problem.  He had gone back to the office after he had changed back into his normal suit to take care of a few things before he spent the week with Darcy.  When he finally got back to his apartment three hours later, furniture had been overturned, pizza boxes were on the counter, and neither Darcy nor Clint were instantly noticeable.  The apartment was oddly silent.  Just as Phil was getting ready to pull out his gun and search his 1000 square feet, Darcy came tearing down the hallway laughing as Clint ran after her.  Darcy skidded to a stop in front of him, throwing her Nerf gun to the ground.

“Cap!” She cried, hugging him tightly as Clint stood and smiled over her shoulder.

“Hey Bear,” he said happily.   “Glad to see you’re having fun.”  She pulled away and looked him up and down, hands still on his shoulders.  

“You look good.”

“You expected I wouldn’t?”

“Welllll,” she said, “I thought something might have been wrong when you didn’t meet me at the airport like you promised.  I assumed it had to be something Earth shattering that you just couldn’t get away from.”

“I couldn’t get away, but hopefully Agent Barton was a fine substitute,” he said with a small smile.  “Though I was concerned that someone had broken in when I got here,” he added as he looked around the room.

“Sorry ‘bout that sir,” Clint chimed in, “but your sister is a very active Nerf fighter.  She tipped the couch as a barricade before I could even realize what she was doing.  She has some slick moves.”

Phil wasn’t sure he liked the way Clint’s eyes roamed over Darcy as he gave her praise.  “Well, I did teach her to take care of herself,” Phil answered carefully.  

“Oh she can take care of herself all right,” Clint said, winking at Darcy who just laughed and swatted at him.  Clint easily dodged her hand, but then grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the livingroom.  “Time to clean up, princess,” he said as they moved to flip the couch.

Phil watched as Darcy worked efficiently with Clint to put back everything they had moved around in his absence.  They worked well together and had the apartment back to rights in no time.

“So, Darce,” Phil asked as he took off his jacket.  “What would you like to do tonight?”

“Already taken care of!” She said happily.  “Clint’s going to make dinner and I’m going to make dessert and then we are going to watch some movies because it is practically criminal that we are not caught up on the Dancers series.”

Phil had hoped she had out-grown her love of the increasingly cheesy movie series where buff men danced in increasingly unlikely scenarios.  Apparently not.

“I can hear you thinking, Phil,” she admonished.  “That series is our thing.  It never fails to make me think of you.  We bonded over those things.”

_Yeah, when you were 12_ , Phil thought.  “How many do we need in order to be caught up?” Phil sighed, resigned to his night.

“Just three,” she chirped as she wet to the kitchen and started pulling things out of the cabinets.

“Okay, but then you owe me a Super Nanny marathon then.”

“Look in your room,” was her odd response.

Phil wanted to change anyway, so he wandered back to his bedroom where he found a wrapped package sitting on his bed.  When he opened it, he found a 10 disc set of the series.  She was good.  His Bear knew him well.  

The question was, though, was he going to be sharing her, and was he okay with that after their several year estrangement?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want the Dancers movie franchise to be a thing.


	14. Darcy Has Her Brother Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little domestic fun for the trio on Darcy's first night visiting.

Darcy hummed as she moved around the kitchen. staying out of Clint’s way as best she could.

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here tonight?” Clint asked.

“Of course,” she breezed.  “Phil trusts you enough to send you to pick me up, plus you had a key to his place before this.  Why would he mind?”

“I dunno,” Clint said, scratching his neck.  “I just don’t want to intrude on your sibling time.”

“Clint,” Darcy said turning to face him, “we are going to spend tonight watching movies where crises are averted through the power of dance.  In one of them they stop a nuclear war through dance.  Does it really sound like we’re going to have a serious evening?  Besides,” she added, to try and convince him, “you’re making us dinner.  It would be wrong to not include you in movies after that.”

“Okay,” Clint said slowly, “but don’t let me intrude on your family time.”

“You’re basically family if how Cap treats you is any indication.”

“And do you see me like family?”

“Eww!  No!  That would make most of my thoughts these past several hours very, very wrong.”

“Oh?” Clint asked, using his arms to trap her against the counter.  

Darcy looked at his arms and licked her lips.  “Yeah,” she said a little breathily, drawing her eyes up to his face.  “I’ve had some rather R rated thoughts about you today.”

He leaned in just a bit and her breath caught in her throat as she made a little mewling noise.  She never had a problem being honest and forward, but with Clint it seemed to be getting her everywhere and god he was hot and was he really into her?  

“You’ll have to tell me about them later,” he whispered to her, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Darcy ducked under his arm to put some space between them before things got too hot in the kitchen.  “If you’re lucky, I’ll show you,” she said saucily as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and went back to making dessert.

Apparently she had moved just in time, because suddenly Phil was back in front of her wearing a faded Captain America t-shirt and sweatpants.

“How are things going in here?” He asked far too innocently.  She was positive he had seen more than she had intended.

“Just fine!” She said quickly.  “I don’t know how Clint’s doing, but I will be ready to put this in the oven soon.  It can cook while we eat, and then we can have some hot apple pie a la mode when we’re done,” she said smiling.

Phil looked between the two of them before asking, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Damn Phil, just how into Captain America are you i Darcy’s making you a friggin’ apple pie?  Cliche much?”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk?  Should we talk about your love of…”

Before Phil could finish, Clint had his hand over his mouth.  “Not another word,” Clint said, waving a spatula around.  “You just keep that thought to yourself, and I won’t razz you about Captain America anymore.”

Darcy smiled at Phil once Clint had gone back to cooking.  “You’re totally spilling everything once he’s gone,” she whispered.

“Absolutely,” Phil smiled back.  “Can’t have you thinking too highly of Barton.  Like any good brother I’ll make sure you have all the facts.”  
Darcy laughed.  “I knew there was a reason you were my favorite brother.”

“Favorite?” Clint asked looking between them.  “Does that mean there’s another?”

“Nope,” Darcy said, “It just means right now he isn’t my least favorite.  It’s a very fine line with him.”

“Like it isn’t with you?” Phil sassed.

“Oh please!  I am nothing but rainbows and sunshine.”

“Oh no no no,” Phil countered.  You are the storm that makes the rainbows-powerful and terrifying.”

“I’ll take it,” Darcy said bopping him on the nose and turning to put her pie in the oven.

It was good to finally have her brother back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am 98% certain that next chapter is going to have Phil getting a very interesting phone call.


	15. Phil Gets a Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil is trying to get Darcy to tell him something when the phone rings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My guests are FINALLY gone! That means a chapter for you, and a promise of a 1-shot in the next 24 hours for making you wait so long!

Phil had enjoyed the past three days with Darcy.  He had taken her to all the tourist traps he could find, much to her delight.  She loved things that were loud and tacky and better in  myth than reality.  She made him take all sorts of crazy selfies with her after getting her to promise not a single one would end up online.  He knew she was planning something, but he also knew she would keep her promise, so he let her enjoy herself.  After today’s tourist destinations, Darcy had declared she was making dinner and ordered Phil to put on SuperNanny.  They would marathon it until the wee hours of the night and then sleep until noon.

Darcy was making a mess in the kitchen, and Phil was studiously ignoring it.  It made him twitchy, but he knew it was Darcy’s way.  He would have been better able to ignore her mess if she wasn’t keeping up a conversation while she cooked.

“I can’t believe that jerk thought you would just roll over and let him cut in line after we had been waiting for two hours.”

“Well, not everyone has manners Darcy.”

“He picked the wrong middle-aged dude to mess with.  Like, I get that he thought you looked totally unassuming, which is like some sort of super power you have or something, but man was it satisfying to watch you take him down.”

“You say it like we had some sort of brawl in the street.”

“You didn’t and that’s why it was so sweet.  You took him down with one little move Phil!”

“I know, I was there.”

“You have to teach me that before I leave.”

“Absolutely not.”

“That’s fine, Clint already said he’d show me anyway.”

That was news to Phil.  “When did you talk to Clint?”

“Oh we were just texting today,” she answered like it was nothing, like Clint was the type to do this all the time.

“Oh?” He asked, keeping his voice neutral.  “What all did you talk about?”

“Nothing much.  I just told him about where we were, what we were doing, you beating up the dude-bro.  I also conned him into bringing us coffee tomorrow whenever we wake up.”

“How’d you get him to agree to that?”

“Oh, that was easy,” she said, waving her arm and getting shredded cheese everywhere in the process.  She didn’t say anything more.

“Darcy….,” Phil said, very concerned with just how she got Clint to agree.  “What did you do?”

“Nothing crazy, Phil!  Honestly!  Don’t you trust me?”

“Sure I do.  I just don’t trust you and Clint together,” he said with a smile.

“Phil!” She cried, whacking him with a spatula.

“I’m still not hearing an explanation.”

“Ugh!  Fine!  If you must know!”

“I must.”

“So all I did was…”

Darcy was interrupted by Phil’s phone ringing.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to get any calls this week?” Darcy said, unsure.

“I’m not.  If they’re calling, it’s big.”

“Well then answer it already!”

Phil picked his phone up from the table and verified it was Shield before answering.

“Coulson,” he said tersely.

“Phil, you’re going to want to come in.”

Fury calling?  This was important.  “What’s going on Nick?”

“We just fished something out of the ocean you’re going to want to see.”

“Sir?”

“More of a ‘who’ than a ‘what,’” Nick added.

“You know what I’m doing this week.”

“I do.  I’ll send Barton over to deal with her while you’re gone.”

“And how long will I be gone?”

“Depends how long it takes the Captain to wake up.”

Phil went very still.  “Repeat that?”

“Phil, Steve Rogers is currently in medical, and the doctors seem to think he’ll be waking up in the next 24 hours.”

Phil sat down in the chair, and Darcy nervously came over to him, kneeling in front of him.

“How is that possible?”

“It seems to be the serum,” Nick said.  Then he added more gently, “Barton’s on his way.  You don’t want to miss this and Darcy wouldn’t want you to either.”  And then he hung up before Phil could say more.

“Phil?” Darcy asked, soft and concerned when he pulled the phone away from his ear.

“It’s highly classified, I’m sure, but I can’t not tell you,” Phil said looking down at her.  “Captain America’s alive.”


	16. Darcy Dresses Phil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What does one wear when meeting Captain America?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOO....I've been MIA for a few days and I want to explain. You may not know, but I relocated to a small town for my husband's job, which meant I didn't have a job. I've been unemployed for the past 18 months (which is fine-we are stable without me having a job). Anyway, I decided to go apply to be a substitute teacher because I've been a bit bored lately. While sitting there and filling out the ap, I mention I'm actually a licensed teacher in my home state, and asked how that affects some of the requirements. From there, I got introduced to an elementary principal who happened to be in the administration office. He finds out I'm licensed (middle school high school), and insists on taking me to the middle school which just had 2 teachers leave. Once there, I meet with the assistant principal who tells me they need a 7th grade social studies teacher. I'm not licensed in that. I'm licensed in English. No problem, she tells me, we'll just do emergency license because school starts the 27th (!!!) and we need a teacher like whoa.  
> Sooooo, I've been trying to learn about transferring my license while also determining whether or not I want this job at all. It's been insane.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said staring wide eyed at Phil, “I thought I just heard you say that Captain America is alive.”

Darcy watched as Phil slowly swallowed.  “I did,” he finally got out.

“How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” Phil said, getting up, “but it is.”

“Where are you going?” Darcy asked as Phil made his way down the hall.

“I’ve got to get dressed.”

“Dressed…?”

“Oh god,” he breathed, “what does one wear to meet Captain America?”

Darcy saw the weight of what was happening finally smack Phil in the gut.  His eyes became unfocused as he tried to get to his room.  Darcy went to his side, helping him into the bedroom and to sit on the bed.

“All right.  You sit there Phil while I sort out your outfit,” Darcy said soothingly.  Once she was confident Phil was okay to sit there, she went to his closet and started looking through his shirts.

“Okay, we’re putting you in a suit because that’s what you’re most comfortable in,” she said, talking her way through it to help him focus.  “But a grey one because black will feel too government thug.  You need to be approachable.”  She flipped through the shirts when something stuck on the far left of the closet caught her eye.  “Oh my god Phil!  You have a blue suit?!  You are so wearing this!” She said as she pulled it out.

“I’ve never worn it,” Phil said.

“Ummm, I see zero reason to not wear this.  Sure it’s a little flashier, a little less forgettable, so it's not perfect for your normal tasks.  But today is special.  Today you are meeting the actual Cap, and you shouldn’t be forgettable.  You should be the all-American freedom lover you are.  This is perfect.”

He sounded like he was going to argue, but then said nothing as she turned back to the closet.  She came back out with a white shirt.  

“Start getting dressed.  A white shirt is just right to tone down the excitement of the blue.  You put the shirt and pants on while I find a tie and shoes.

A few minutes later, Phil emerged from the bathroom, looking less lost and a lot more like himself.  

“Okay, here we go,” she said handing him a darker blue striped tie and a red pocket square.  “Also, wear those shoes,” she said pointing toward the mahogany dress shoes on the floor.  “I’ll be out in the kitchen while you finish up.  I’ll make you a snack to eat once you get there,”

With that, Darcy went out the door and into the kitchen to see if she could pull together something that would be filling but not messy.  She went through the cabinets and refrigerator and settled on making him a stereotypical school lunch-peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, some carrots, and a gatorade instead of a juice box.  She rummaged through the drawers some more until she found some licorice he had been hiding to add to the bag.  Just as she was finishing, the doorbell rang.

“Can you get that?”  Phil called from the room  “It should be Clint.”

Darcy opened the door to Clint standing there with two boxes of pizza and a 6 pack of beer.

“Hey,” he said with a smile as he walked in the door.  “I’m your Fury ordered babysitter while Phil wets himself over Steve Rogers.”

Darcy smacked his arm but took the pizza from him and put it on the counter as she started to clean up the mess she had made while starting their dinner.

“I’ll put this in the fridge until later, Phil.  It just needs to go in the oven, so dinner’s ready for whenever you get home," Darcy called loud enough for Phil to hear in his room.

“Well?” Phil asked coming out of the room.  “Do I look okay?” he asked a touch self consciously.

“Holy shit, Phil.  You clean up nice,” Clint blurted out.

Darcy burst out laughing.  “He’s right,” Darcy finally got out, “You do look good.  I mean, you’re related to me, so that was pretty obvious from the start.  But the outfit looks good.  It is subtling saying, ‘I love America and am super confident,’ so I think the real Cap will like it.”

“I’m never going to be ‘Cap’ again, am I?” Phil asked her with a smile.

“Nope,” she said, “from now on you’re imposter Cap.  Also, he’s now my favorite brother.”

“Well, he’s my favorite too,” Phil said cheekily.

“Not uh,” Darcy said.  “That’s not how it works.  You can only replace me with Bucky, so I’m secure in the knowledge that I will forever be the favorite sister.”

“Well, until 30 minutes ago we thought Steve was dead too,” Phil said loftily.  

“I’ll believe it when I see it, “Darcy said, “Now scoot!  You don’t want to miss this!”

Phil took her gentle push toward the door.  “Take care of her while I’m gone, Barton,” he said.

“Don’t worry sir,” Clint said winking at Darcy, “I will.”

“Clint…,” Phil started.

“Here!” Darcy said, shoving the brown paper bag in his hands.  “Don’t forget your snack!”

Phil took the bag from her and she wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug.  “Go be part of history,” she whispered as she let go.

Phil nodded, grabbed his keys, and went out the door.

“So,” Darcy said turning to Clint, “just how were you planning on keeping me busy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, this is what Phil looks like once dressed.  
> http://www.empireonline.com/images/image_index/original/75657.jpg


	17. Phil Gets Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil has stories for Darcy and she has gifts for him.

Phil was practically floating as he made his way back to his apartment.  Captain America was alive and he had seen him.  Nick had bigger plans for Phil than just seeing Captain Rogers, and as such, he wasn’t allowed to be part of the wake up proceedings, which was an initial let down.

_“It’s probably going to go pretty poorly,” Nick said.  “I want you working with him later, so you can’t be associated with this awkward moment.  It’s not a good beginning for a working relationship.  He’s going to have to be mad at someone, and I don’t want it to be you,” he finished._

_Phil nodded his understanding.  He could be patient.  He could wait his turn._

But gosh he wished he could have met him after they brought him back in from the streets of Time Square.  “Soon,” Fury had said, and Phil had accepted that.  “Soon” would be soon enough.  Working with Captain America?  Pretty much the most amazing way this could have gone. With that thought, he decided to go back home to his sister who would still find this to be the coolest story ever (even thought he didn’t actually meet Steve yet).

When he pushed open the door of his apartment, the lights were off and the blinds shut.  He reached for the light switch,

“Don’t,” Clint whispered from the living room.

Phil dropped his hand from the switch and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low light.  Clint was sitting on the couch.  Darcy’s head was in his lap, the rest of her sprawled across the couch.  Clint had one hand on her hair and the other across the back of the couch.  Phil could hear Darcy’s soft breath.

“How long has she been asleep?” He asked.

“Only about an hour,” Clint said.  “She wanted to stay up until you got back, but she just didn’t make it.”

“No need to wake her.  Stories will keep until she wakes up.”  Phil wandered over to the kitchen and pulled the casserole Darcy had been preparing earlier out of the refrigerator.  “How long since you ate?”

“Uhhhh,” Clint said, “what time is it?”

“That long?”

“Nah, I just have no idea what time it is.”

Phil put the casserole into the oven and looked at Clint.  “Why do you have no concept of what time it is?” He asked, suspicious.

“Darcy and I were, uhhh, woking on something,” Clint said awkwardly.

“Clint, do we need to have a talk?” Phil asked, desperately hoping that they didn’t.  He did not want to come down from his Captain America high by giving a shovel talk.  Though maybe he could channel Cap’s “America is disappointed with you” face that made Fury almost cave.

“What?  No.  We were just, ummm, doing something Darcy will kill me if I tell you about.”

Phil sighed and pushed his glasses back up his nose.  “That’s not better Clint.”

“Ughh, I can’t say, okay?  Darcy will have to tell you because it was her idea.”

“Are you throwing my sister under the bus so I don’t yell at you?” Phil said louder than he intended.

“No, Phil, he’s not,” Darcy yawned, sitting up.  “He’s trying to keep his mouth shut about the surprise we worked on while you were gone.”

“Oh really?” Phil asked, not fully convinced.  “Then where’s this surprise?”

Darcy sighed and got off the couch.  “Wait here and don’t kill each other,” she said as she wander back to the guest bedroom.  Phil glared at Clint.

Clint held up his hands in surrender.  “I promise I didn’t do anything that would make you mad,” he said quickly and quietly, eyes darting to the hall Darcy had retreated to.

“Fine, I believe you,” Phil said, “but we are still absolutely having a talk later.”

“Really Phil?” Darcy asked as she came back with a package in her hand.  “I know you think he’s awesome, so what’s wrong with me thinking that too?  Is it because I’m a girl?  Is it because I’m your sister?  Well, how about I get to make whatever mistakes I want?”  She turned to look at Clint, “Though that wasn’t a mistake,” she said with a huge, theatrical wink that made Phil’s eye twitch.

“Darcy,” Phil said as smoothly as possible, “I’m your brother.  It’s my right to torment your, umm, friends.  Especially if I introduced you and I knew him first.”  Phil winced a little at his stumble over what to call Clint.

“Awww, IC, are you trying to claim Clint like a dog?  Is this you peeing all over him and saying ‘mine’?”

“First of all, that’s disgusting,” Phil said with a slight shudder.  “Secondly, ‘IC’?”

“Yeah,” Clint said with a shit-eating grin, “it stands for ‘Imposter Captain.’ We came up with it together while you were gone.”

“I hate both of you,” Phil sighed.

“I guess that means you don’t want your gifts,” Darcy said loftily.

“Darcy…” Phil practically whined.

“Ugh., I can’t stay mad at you.  C’mere,” she said, waving him over to the table.

He came to the table and sat like she instructed.  “Okay,” Darcy said, “there are two parts to your gift.  This is part one.”  She handed him a lumpy, wrapped package.

He carefully pulled the tape at each seam, folding up the wrapping paper as he unwrapped the gift.  Darcy huffed next to him.

“I can’t believe you still unwrap things like that.”

“It makes it easier to clean up,” Phil said as he flipped the gift over.

“But it’s not as fun,” Darcy said as Phil examined his gift.  It was a collage picture frame.  Darcy had printed out all the pictures she had taken with him over the week and arranged them for him.

“Ohhhhh, Bear,” he whispered, getting up to hug her.

“I printed them all here, so you don’t have to worry that anyone saw them," she said as he pulled back.  “I just thought it would be something nice for your apartment.”  Then she reached over for a small bag.  “This is the other half of your gift.  Technically it’s from Clint because he fronted the money.”

“Ehhh, Hydra paid for it.”

Phil turned to look sharply at Clint.  Clint shrugged.

“All I did was check an account number I memorized last mission.  There was still money, so I figured it wasn’t too big a deal to take it.”

Phil mentally added that to the list of things to discuss with Clint as he pulled the gift from the bag.  Inside was the final trading card he needed for his collection.

“Oh my god Darcy,” he said, “this must have cost a fortune.”

“Now that I know Clint didn’t actually pay,” she said, “I don’t feel bad about the price at all.”

“Best.  Sister.  Ever,” he said as he nearly broke her ribs with his fierce hig.

“Remember that next time you try to claim Bucky as your favorite,” she laughed.  “Now, tell me all about meeting the real Cap.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I ultimately decided not to take that job I mentioned last chapter. There were just too many red flags as I learned more about it. Oh well. I guess that just means more writing time.


	18. Darcy Sees a Storm Brewing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane's data says something is happening, and Darcy doesn't feel great about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've always thought it was BS that Jane wasn't at the facility with Erik looking at the tesseract, but I refuse to believe she wasn't at least doing her own science and collecting her own data still when everything in Avengers happened, so that's the basis for this chapter.

Darcy sighed as she looked over at Jane.  Jane was muttering to herself as she looked over data.  There wasn’t much Darcy could do at the moment.  Jane had eaten just an hour ago, and had taken a nap around 8 hours ago.  She didn’t need Darcy to do anything at the moment, but Darcy also couldn’t just leave her alone.  Leaving Jane alone (especially when you thought she was fine) was a recipe for disaster.  Darcy had learned that the hard way in New Mexico when she came back to Jane carefully drawing star charts on her arm in sharpie because “it’ll make night observations so much easier,” even though that made zero sense and Darcy knew for a fact that she wasn’t sleep deprived.  It had been nearly two weeks before the mess had finally washed away.

She decided to text Clint.

**BORED**

**Me too.**

**What could be boring at [redacted]?**

**I’m still not telling you where I am.**

**Boo, you whore**

**Yeah, what about it ;)**

**Tease**

**Only because we’re far apart.**

**How far are we talking?**

**Nice try D.**

**Ugh!  Seriously, though.  I’m super bored.  Entertain me.**

**What am I?  A dancing monkey?**

**Well you did grow up in a circus….**

**Darcy, I’m working.**

**FINE.**

**Babe, it’s not like that.  This job is boring, but it’s still my job.**

**I know.**

**Bother your brother.**

**Hmmm...I’m going to tell him you told me to bother him.**

**WAIT!  NO.**

**Too late :)**

“Darcy?” Jane called.

“Yo!” Darcy yelled back.

“Come look at this with me.  I’m positive that I’m seeing something in this data, but I don’t want it to just be me being hopeful.”

“Boss lady, if you’re seeing something, it’s there,” Darcy said as she moved over to sit next to Jane.  “You might be a victim of flights of science, but never flights of whimsy.  Now show me what you’re looking at.”

Jane handed Darcy a paper and started pointing at the numbers.  “I want you to put these into a graph against the same data from the last several weeks of data.  Let’s start with the last 4 weeks, but we might want to do as many as 12.”

“You got it,” Darcy said twirling her chair from the table to the computer.  “What do you think you’re going to see?”

“I’m certain that this data is erratic, but I’m not sure it’s statistically significant.  We’ll also need to graph it against what little data we still have from Thor’s arrival.”

Darcy stopped typing and looked calmly at Jane.  “Janey,” she said slowly, “do you think that we might be having another incident with space?”

“That’s just it,” Jane said, “the data seems different this time.  It’s like I’m getting readings from space AND Earth.”

“How is that even…”

“I don’t know,” Jane said, cutting her off.

“Should we be talking to Shield?” Darcy asked, wincing a little.

“Absolutely not!” Jane nearly screamed.  “How could you even think that?!”

“Sorry,” Darcy said meekly, “it’s just that they seemed to have access to a whole bunch of stuff we didn’t that might make this easier.  Besides, if you cooperate instead of getting science-mugged, maybe we can keep the research?” She finished, really not sure if Shield would do that.

“No.  We have to do this on our own,” Jane said.  “We don’t even know what they did to Erik except take him away and disappear him.”

“Maybe we would get to work with him again?” Darcy said.

“On.  Our.  Own.”

“You got it boss,” Darcy said as she swiveled back to the computer.  She was really regretting not telling Jane about Phil now.  It didn’t seem like a good time to bring it up, though.

Several hours later, Darcy and Jane were definitely looking at data that was telling them something was happening.  What and where, though, wasn’t as clear.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Darcy said as she frowned at the graphs.

“It can’t be good or bad yet.  Right now it’s just energy.  There hasn’t been a spike yet like when Thor came.  This might be all thunder but no storm.”

“True.  I just, I don’t know.  Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Here,” Jane said handing her a notebook, “try running the numbers against this.”

Darcy took the notebook and got to work.  As she was entering what felt like the 15 millionth piece of data, her phone began to ring.  She picked it up and answered without even looking away from the computer.

“Hello?” She asked, distracted.

“Darcy, listen to me very carefully.  I don’t have a lot of time here.  Something’s happening and I think it’s just the start.  Please don’t go anywhere with anyone unless they give you the code phrase, okay?”

“Phil, what’s happening?” she asked, suddenly focused and panicked by the worry that was coloring his words.

“I can’t talk much longer.  Please just promise me!”

“I promise!”

“Good.  I’ll call you when I can.”

“Be safe, IC.”

“Goodbye Bear,” he said before hanging up.

Darcy stared at the disconnected call on her screen.  “I really don’t feel good about this at all.” she said to no one.


	19. Phil Sends Darcy Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The storm is closing in. Loki has arrived and Phil has escaped the devastation of the research facility.

Phil raced through the compound to get to his evac.  Just moments before he had hung up with Darcy, and now he couldn’t be more glad that he had.  Something big was about to happen, and if the collapsing research facility was any indication, it wasn’t going to be good.  He was momentarily happy the attempts of Dr. Selvig to bring Dr. Foster in on this project had been rejected. He had recused himself from offering opinions on the matter because he knew he was biased.  Some days he was biased for having Jane and Darcy there because then he could keep an eye on them.  Other days he didn’t want them within 1,000 miles of the dangerous facility.  Today was one of those days.

“Director,” Phil called over the comm.  “Director Fury, do you copy?”

“The tesseract is with a hostile force.  I have men down,” Fury responded.  “Hill?”

“A lot of men still under.  Don’t know how many survivors.”

“Sound the general call.  I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase.” Fury commanded.

“Roger that,” Hill said.

“Coulson, get back to base.  This is a level 7.  As of right now, we are at war.”

Phil took in Nick’s words and asked, “What do we do?”

“We get to the base and discuss our options in private,” Nick said, chastising Phil.

“Roger that,” Phil said as he considered what all he needed to do now.

Several hours later Phil arrived at base and had figured out several things. First and foremost he had to get Darcy and Jane somewhere safe.  He needed to send someone he could trust to escort them far, far away from whatever was happening here.  There was that facility Jane had been dying to work at.  If he could remember the name, he would be able to pull some strings and get them there.  Tromsø, that was it.  Nice and remote.  That should keep them safe.

While he waited for Fury and Hill to arrive, he sent a team to move Darcy and Jane, giving the leader explicit directions to give Darcy their new pre-arranged code phrase.  She had forgiven him for the “cute kitten” one, but demanded something different for the next time.

_“If there’s a next time,” Phil said over their curry._

_“Really Cap?” she asked, incredulous.  “You really think there might not be a next time?”_

_“I don’t want there to be one,” he clarified._

_“I assume you mean that from now on you’ll always be free to pick me up?”_

_“Well, me or Clint,” he said with a bit of amusement._

_“Yeah, you thought you were so clever with that ‘aren’t you a cute kitten’ crap.  You’re lucky he was hot.  Otherwise that would have been super embarrassing.”_

_“Wouldn’t it be more embarrassing because he’s hot?” Phil asked, genuinely curious._

_“Would be if he wasn’t such a great kisser,” she agreed while Phil choked on his rice.  “But seriously, some day you’ll need to send someone to me and they will have to convince me they’re legit.  C’mon,  you’re the one that taught me that.”_

_“I know Bear,” he said with a fond smile.  “You’ve learned well.  So what do you think our phrase should be?”_

_“If you’re sending someone to me because you or Clint can’t be there, that sounds serious,” she said tapping her fork to her mouth.  “What if we stuck with the garden theme?”_

_“That could work,” he said nodding.  “I feel like I should let you pick.”_

_“If I get to pick, it’s going to be embarrassing for them to say instead of for me to hear.”_

_“Like what?”_

_“Maybe, ‘Is your lady garden on fire? I have a hose to put it out.’ That would be ridiculous to say to a stranger.”_

_Phil put down his fork and stared at her like she was crazy._

_“What?” she pouted.  “It’s only dirty if you let it be.”_

As soon as Maria arrived, Phil wanted to ask a million questions, but instead simply said, “Status?”

“It’s a real shit show, Phil,” she sighed.  “The facility is demolished.  We’re estimating over 100 lost.  Luckily, Selvig did a data upload right before everything went to hell, so we have something to work with.”  She paused and looked at him.  Her eyes showed more tension than before.  “Erik and Barton are with the hostile, and it appeared to be of their own free will,” she said, placing an arm on his shoulder.

“It wasn’t,” Fury said as he strode into the room.  “Loki used some sort of weapon to mind control them.  Neither of them are in control of what they are doing.”  He looked between them, and then focused on Phil, “He shot me because that was in Loki’s best interests.  You better prepare yourself for the worst.”

Maria gave him a quizzical glance, but he nodded softly, indicating it wasn’t important right now.  He’d worry about what he’d tell Darcy if there was anything to tell her.  Maybe this would all turn out much better than Nick was implying.  Somehow, he didn’t think it would.

“It's time to bring the team together,” Nick said.

“The Avengers?”  Phil asked.

“I don’t know how else we can do this,” was Fury’s pragmatic response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to kill Phil in this chapter, and I just couldn't. Darcy's up next, and then we'll have some serious Phil pain.


	20. Darcy and Jane Get Sent Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May gives Darcy a code phrase, and Jane realizes something is up.

Darcy was having a staring contest with the “academic” that had just shown up to whisk her and Jane off to their “fully grant funded opportunity” in Norway.  There was no way in hell this woman was actually a dean of any sort.  Phil had taught her well since New Mexico, and this woman had all sorts of little warning signs.  She had gun callouses on her hands.  Their travel details were “all taken care of” which told Darcy they weren’t flying commercial-another warning.

Finally the woman broke their staring contest and got into Darcy’s personal space.  She leaned down to whisper into Darcy’s ear.

“This one time, Captain America punched me in the face.  It was awesome.”

Darcy looked at the woman and raised an eyebrow.  The woman responded with a small nod.

“Jane, what are the essentials?  Pack those into that box first,” Darcy called over the woman’s shoulder to the flustered scientist.  Then she looked at the woman again.

“Is he okay?” She asked in a small voice.

“He’s doing his job,” she replied before turning to direct the few workers she had brought along to load the plane.

Darcy thought carefully about what this meant.  First had been the call from Phil, then he had sent workers to take both her and Jane away.  On top of that they were being sent somewhere remote on government money.  Things had to be pretty bad if Phil wasn’t concerned about the expense of moving them and he couldn’t send her Clint.

Clint.  She pulled her phone out of her pocket.

**Are you okay?  IC didn’t send you to get me, so that can’t be good….**

She knew she might be waiting for a while, so she also sent a text to Phil.

**Your goon said the phrase.  Be safe, Cap.**

She shoved her phone back into her pocket.  She didn’t expect a response any time soon.  Instead she kept herself busy over the next hour with packing up the things Jane would need.  She would talk to Jane about what was really happening once they were in the middle of nowhere, but there was no telling how long they would be there, and, really, this was a great opportunity for Jane.  No reason to squander it just because it was a Shield mandated exile.

When they finally landed in Norway, Jane was starting to question everything even though she wasn’t saying so.  Darcy looked to Jane and shook her head, hoping she would understand that they should wait to talk.  Jane shot her a questioning look, but stayed quiet.

Once the last goon had been out the door for a solid two minutes, Jane turned to Darcy.

“This is not a grant opportunity, is it?”

Darcy nodded.  “Totally not,”

“How long have you known?”

“Since we packed up the lab.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jane asked in that quiet voice that told Darcy she was angry.

“Because it was obvious that they were moving us to keep us safe,”

“How is that obvious?”

“Jane, they are sending you to a research lab you’ve been dying to work at.  They’re not disappearing us, they picked a place that was somewhere you wanted to be that had the added bonus of being in the middle of nowhere.  They wanted you out of the country and safe, so they made this as appealing to you as possible.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know, but something big is happening.  We need to keep collecting your data.  That’s the path to the answer.”

Jane examined Darcy closely.  Darcy tried not to fidget under her gaze.

“What aren’t you telling me?”  Jane asked.

Darcy had been dreading telling Jane the truth, but it was probably past time.

“The woman in charge told me a code phrase from my brother,” Darcy finally said.

“Why would she have a code phrase from your brother?”

Darcy stood a little straighter as she tried to project confidence.  “She had a phrase from my brother because he sent her.”

“Your brother sent her?” Jane asked, incredulous.

“Because he couldn’t come get us himself.”

“Why is your brother involved at all?” Jane asked.

Darcy couldn’t look Jane in the eye as she said, “He’s involved because he works for Shield.”

“Darcy,” Jane said, drawing out her name to get Darcy to look up. When Darcy finally looked up Jane studied her face, and then her face lit up as she realized something.  “Your brother was in New Mexico,” she said, not asked.

“Yes,” Darcy agreed.

“Which one was he?”

“Agent Coulson,” Darcy mumbled.

“What?!” Jane cried.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I just found out then,” Darcy confessed.  “When I went to college, he told me he was leaving the military to take on a government job.  We had a fight about it and didn’t talk for several years.  I didn’t know he was working for Shield until he showed up in New Mexico, and he didn’t know I was in New Mexico at all.”

“Oh Darcy!” Jane sighed, engulfing her in a hug.  “We’re going to find whatever is the Norwegian equivalent of tequila, we’re going to get crazy drunk, and you’re going to tell me everything you need to.”

“And then we’re going to milk every dime Shield has spent on this to figure out what the hell is actually going on,” Darcy added, smiling into Jane’s shoulder.

“This is why you’re my favorite intern.”

“Only.”

“Hush you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter guys. Next chapter Phil dies. I've been harvesting my hug fields in preparation for you all.


	21. Phil Dies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title says it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys. Here it is. I watched a clip of this scene over and over again, so pretty much all of this dialog is not mine.

Phil mentally went over the list of things he planned to do once this was all over.  Currently it looked like this:

  1. Kill Fury for all his damn secrets.

  2. Get Steve Rogers to sign his trading cards.  (This might need to be bumped to 1 in case killing Fury makes Steve less likely to sign the cards.)

  3. Make sure Barton is in his right mind before being allowed anywhere near Darcy.

  4. Make an official note of commendation in Natasha’s file for her handling of Banner’s recruitment.

  5. Sleep for a day straight.  (What?  He wasn’t 25 anymore.  This shit was getting exhausting.)




He kept going over the list in his mind as he made his way to the weapon prototype that he knew was hidden in the storage room of the helicarrier.  He raced through the stacks of nondescript boxes until he found what he was looking for.  The only thing that set it apart from every other case in the room was the ID number painted on the side.  He pulled it off the shelf, unlatched the clasps, and pulled the gun from the molded styrofoam inset.

“I have the gun,” Phil said into his com.

“Get to the containment area,” Hill responded, slightly out of breath.  “Loki needs to be contained at all costs.”

“On it,” Phil said as he stood and raced back the way he had come from.  As he ran he added to the top of his list “figure out how prototype gun works.”  He would kill Fury and talk to Steve once that was done.  He deftly maneuvered around Loki’s henchmen until he finally was in the containment area.  

“Move away please,” he said to Loki who was standing in front of the containment control panel.  Loki moved away, but Phil wasn’t sure he trusted this seemingly acquiescing motion.  “You like this?” He asked, waving the gun a bit, trying to get a surreptitious look at the weapon to get some idea how to work it while hopefully looking intimidating.  “We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer,” he added, feeling like a monologuing villain.

Mentioning the Destroyer made him think of Darcy and his promise.  Sure, she could take care of herself, but she couldn’t do that if there wasn’t a world for her to live in.  He had to stop Loki and keep his promise to that little bundle he had held all those years ago.  If he failed this...he couldn’t even finish the thought.  Failure was not an option.  If he failed, Darcy would be in serious danger and that was unthinkable.

He moved closer to Loki, his only thoughts of Darcy and how to make this stupid gun work.  He waved the machine in question again and quipped, “Even I don’t know what it does,” as he tried to use proximity to intimidate.  Looking down at the gun he saw what he sincerely hoped was an on switch and flipped it.  A satisfying glow spread through the gun as he looked at Loki.  “Want to find out?”

Something felt wrong.  His back had arched and he didn’t know why.  Vaguely, he heard Thor shout as the Loki in front of him disappeared and he fell to the ground.  Pain.  That’s what was wrong  He was in pain.  He watched Loki strut in front of him and refused to give him the satisfaction of acknowledging the pain.  He could feel his labored breathing as he watched Loki hit the controls to drop Thor out of the helicarrier.  He tried to stand, but realized his legs weren’t listening to his brain.  But maybe that was because his brain was starting to get fuzzy.  It must not have sent out clear commands.

He thought of Darcy again and willed himself to focus.  This wasn’t good, but all was not lost.  He could still stop Loki if he just stayed focused.

“You’re going to lose,” he called out as Loki started to walk away.

“Why,” Loki said, and Phil recognized it as a statement, and not a question.  He congratulated himself on still being able to hear the difference, though the pain was starting to become a thudding in his ears.

“It’s in your nature,” Phil said, answering the question Loki didn’t ask.

“Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky.  Where is my disadvantage?” Loki asked with a superior smirk.

“You lack conviction,” Phil said as he thought about his promise to Darcy, his driving force since he was 10.  Loki didn’t have that.  He didn’t have a Darcy, and that’s why he would lose.  Phil believed this with all his heart.  He had to, or he would lose just like Loki.

“I don’t think I-” Loki started to say, but suddenly (finally!) the gun went off, blasting him into and then through the far wall.

“So that’s what it does,” Phil mused as he thought about his supreme luck that Loki hadn’t realized he had stepped right into the gun’s path as he tried to get in the last word.

Phil wasn’t sure how long after the blast (seconds?  minutes?  hours?), but finally help was in front of him.  Nick was in front of him.  How funny that he was sitting here dying when killing Fury had been at the top of his list.

“Sorry boss,” he managed, still hiding his pain, “the god rabbited.”

Nick took the gun from his lap, and it felt like 100 pounds had been lifted from him and he was no longer tethered to the floor.  He was floating without the gun to keep him grounded.

“Stay awake,” Nick said, stopping Phil’s brain from wandering too far.  “Eyes on me,” he commanded, grabbing Phil’s face to look at him.  How like childhood Darcy that action was.  When she was 2 or 3 (Phil couldn’t quite remember just now), she would grab his face in her chubby hands so he would look at her while she babbled her little toddler stories.  Nick’s hands were rough and calloused.  It felt wrong and made the memory wobble and twist.

“I’m going out here,” he said, slurring slightly.

“Not an option,” Nick said, and Phil briefly imagined that Fury might be able to order someone alive and it would work.

“It’s okay boss,” Phil said as he struggled to stay lucid.  “This was never going to work if they didn’t have something they…” Phil’s mouth couldn’t finish the words he was trying to say, but he knew Nick would get it.  He had to.  If Nick didn’t understand that the team needed a catalyst, then he would have still failed Darcy.  Loki was still out there.  He hadn’t done enough.  He needed Nick to understand.

He needed..

 

He…

 

 

It was so dark.

 

He was floating again.

He was so close.  He could feel it.  He was almost there.  

 

 

No.

 

He was strapped to something.

He was fighting it.  

He needed to go.  He had almost been there.

 

 

It hurt.

 

 

It hurt so, so much.

 

 

Why wouldn’t they let him go?

 

 

Why wasn’t Darcy stopping this?

 

Why wasn’t she protecting him?

 

 

 

Who was she?

 

 

There was nothing.

 

 

 

Tahiti is a magical place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a supply of hugs and cute animal pictures over on my tumblr (thestanceyg). Feel free to stop by for comfort or to yell at me. I'll be gone all day Saturday, so I might not be able to hug you right away.


	22. Darcy is Told

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy learns about Phil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY this took so long. I took a freelance job that turned out to be a BEAST that ate my life. Luckily, it's done now.

Darcy and Jane stared at the screen in front of them in shock as they watched the Avengers take on an alien invasion.  Every time Thor got beat up they both cringed.  Every time the Hulk smashed an alien they cheered.  Even their “totally not Shield” security couldn’t pull their eyes away.

They watched in horror as Tony Stark flew a missile up into the clouds as the portal began to close.  They both held their breath as his body rocketed back to Earth.  And then, finally, it was over.  Both of them sat in silence, trying to understand the weight of everything they just saw.  As the newscaster droned on, they both stared off into middle space, not paying attention to anything.

“Darcy,” Jane finally said, “Do you think…,” Jane couldn’t finish the question, and Darcy wasn’t sure just what Jane had been prepared to ask.

One of the guard’s phones rang, and Jane and Darcy both looked at him.  He grabbed it and removed himself from the room, cutting off all opportunities to eavesdrop.

“When do you think you’ll hear from…,” Jane tried, dropping off the implied “your brother.”

“I don’t know,” Darcy said, “there’s probably still so much to do.

Jane nodded, but said nothing more.  Finally Jane got up and wandered over to the lab tables.

“I’m going to do some more work,” Jane said, “because I can’t think about all that right now.”

Wordlessly Darcy joined her.

 

Several hours later, her phone pinged with a message.

**Where are you.**

**Norway, where we were sent.  Are you okay?**

Instead of answering her question, Clint responded **Do you have a security team with you?**

**Yes**

**Good.  I need you to stay put until I get there.**

**It’s not like I could go anywhere if I wanted to.**

**C’mon, we both know you can do anything you want if you want it bad enough.**

**That’s because Phil indulges me and is higher ranking than these thugs.**

Clint didn’t respond, but Darcy didn’t think much of it.  He was always disappearing when work called, leaving her hanging like that.

**But you are okay, right?** She asked, unable to help herself.

**We’ll talk when I get there.**

Darcy didn’t like that sound of that.

 

“When I get there” turned out to be three days later.  Darcy had done a terrible job of forcing Jane or herself to eat and sleep, each of them haunted by what they had seen, what they had heard, and everything that had been left unsaid.

It was midday maybe (Darcy had lost all sense of time) when Clint arrived in the lab.

“Hey Darce,” he called out, startling both her and Jane from the papers they were staring at.

“Clint?” Darcy asked as she looked him over for signs of injury.

“Yeah,” he said, looking very uncomfortable.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better.”

Darcy herded him over to a chair.  “Sit,” she commanded as she sat ont he tabletop in front of him.  “What’s wrong?”

Clint didn’t look at her, but instead stared at his hands.  “I was there when all this started and Loki arrived.”

“Ohhh, Clint!”  she cried, thinking how terrible that scene must have been.

“He did something to me,” Clint continued on, hands shaking now.  Darcy grabbed his hands in hers and ran soothing circles with her thumbs.  Clint paused while she did this, but a moment later continued on.  “He used something to control my mind.  He had me under his control, and I did some terrible things for him.”

“But you’re okay now,” Darcy said, hoping it was true.

“Nat knocked me out to get me out of his control, but by then the damage was done.”  Clint stopped and took a deep breath.  “Because of me, because of my help, Loki was able to…,”  Clint couldn’t finish.

Darcy realized she was holding her breath, waiting for and fearing what he was about to say, but she felt like she already knew.

“Clint,” she said, words quaking, “why didn’t Phil come to get me?”

Clint said nothing, but finally looked up at her, his eyes red, tears about to overflow.

Darcy dropped Clint’s hands.

“No,”  she said to Clint.  “no,” she said to the room.  “No!” She cried as her hands flew to her mouth and the tears broke loose and streamed down her face.

Clint got up and touched her arm.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed at him.

Suddenly Jane was wrapping herself around Darcy, one arm pulling her head tight to Jane’s shoulder, the other around her waist.  “Shhhhhh,” she whispered into Darcy’s ear.  “Breathe with me now.”

Darcy concentrated on Jane’s breathing to help calm herself.

“I think you better go,” she heard Jane tell Clint.

Darcy’s head was thundering with noises she couldn’t identify, so she couldn’t hear if Clint followed Jane’s directions.  But when Jane finally let her go, many minutes later, they were alone in the room.  Even their security had left them alone.

Jane pulled Darcy over to the beat up couch that sat in the corner of the lab.

“What do I do without my Cap, Janey?”  Darcy asked.

“You do his memory service,” Jane answered.


	23. Phil has a Headache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil's head hurts, and he's going to figure out why.

Phil had a headache.  He kept having these strange dreams that featured a little girl and seemed happy, but he always woke up with a headache and a feeling that something was wrong.  He got up from his desk and headed toward the kitchen.  Coffee and some tylenol should fix his head.

“Are you okay sir?” Jemma asked as his hand shook slightly while pouring.

“Just a headache,” he said, knowing Jemma would press until she had her answer.

“That’s the third time this week, sir,” Jemma said neutrally.

“It’s fine,” he dismissed.

Jemma refused to hear the dismissal.  “I actually don’t think it is fine, sir,” she said.  “Is there anything that these headaches have in common?  Perhaps location of the pain, or time of day?  Exposure to something?  Anything at all that you’re aware of?  If we know what’s causing them, perhaps I can stop them.”

“Leave it, Simmons,” Melinda said as she joined them in the kitchen.  “You can interrogate him once his head no longer hurts,” she added, taking the edge off her words.

“Right,” Simmons said, grabbing her own mug and heading back toward the labs.

Once she was gone, May turned to him  “Another one Phil?”

“Obviously,” he said, sipping his coffee.

“You have thoughts on why,” she said, not bothering to make it a question.

Instead of answering, Phil tilted his head a bit in acquiescence and then walked back to his office.  As he expected, May followed him, closing the door behind her.  She sat in the chair across from him, not speaking.  He knew she was waiting for him to explain what he was thinking, but he couldn’t bring himself to start talking.  For some reason he felt embarrassed.

After a long silence Melinda finally said, “What’s going on, Phil?”

He picked his coffee cup back up, taking a drink to delay just a little longer.  He placed the mug back on the desktop, but kept his hands cradled around it.

“I’m having dreams,” he said, tapping his fingers against the mug, considering what more to say.  “They’re not all the same in scene, but that all contain the same person.”

“Loki?” May guessed.

Phil pursed his lips and shook his head no.  “They aren’t nightmares.  They feel pleasant until I wake up.”

“And when you wake up?”

“A headache and a feeling of dread.”

May said nothing, but Phil knew she was thinking about what he had said.  Finally she asked, “Do you know the person in the dreams?”

Phil shook his head.  “No, but I feel like I should.  She’s so familiar.”

May tensed a bit at his statement.  “She?”

Phil nodded and sipped from his mug again.  “A child, actually,” he added.  May frowned at this addition, an uncharacteristic tell.  Phil pounced on it.  “Any idea why I might be dreaming of a child?”

Melinda was quiet for a moment, but Phil was determined to wait her out.  Instead of an answer, she asked, “What do you remember of your own childhood?”

Now it was Phil’s turn to frown.  There were memories, but there was also something on the edge of his mind.  It was shadowy and felt important.

“Tell me what you’re thinking, Phil,” Melinda said softly.

“I remember my parents, and I remember them divorcing,” he started, “but there’s something missing.”

“Why do you think there’s something missing?”

“I can feel it.  There’s more to those memories, a shadow.”

May nodded, waiting for him to say more.  “So my childhood is related to these dreams?” He asked.  “That’s why you asked, right?”

May just raised an eyebrow.

“This girl is what’s missing from my memories?” He tried.

Still she did not speak.

“If she’s from my childhood, she’s not a child anymore either,” he said, starting to work through his thoughts.  “We grew up together?” he asked, pushing himself to consider it.  “A friend?”  He shook his head, dismissing it.  She couldn’t be a friend if his mind was trying to remind him of her.  

His eyes had drifted back to his hands as he contemplated, but now he looked back up at Melinda.  “A sister,” he whispered.

Still Melinda did not answer.

“I had a sister.  How could I have forgotten her?”  Suddenly he was mad with energy.  “Did she die?” he yelled, jumping out of his chair, eager to do something.  “If she died, how could I forget?”

“She didn’t die,” Melinda said softly.

“She didn’t?” Phil asked, calmed a bit by this happy detail.  “Then what?”

“You did.”

“What?”

“She didn’t die, Phil.  You did.”

Phil heavily sat back down in his chair.

“Where is she now?” Phil whispered.  “And what did you tell her?”

May said nothing.

Phil read the silence for the answer it was.  “She doesn’t know I’m alive,” he whispered.

May shrugged, but it was forced.  “She was friends with Barton.  We couldn’t tell her without the Avengers finding out.”

Phil slumped back in his chair, letting the emotion wash over him before he got to work.  He would burn the world to find his sister and tell her the truth, but first he wanted to grieve for her and the life she was leading with the lies she had been told.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't leave him in the dark too long. Hope you don't mind!


	24. Darcy Buries Phil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A funeral gives Darcy closure and also a new beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't what I expected this chapter to be, but this is what came out. Hope you like it!

Darcy had taken off exactly two weeks to tell her parents about Phil and arrange his funeral.  There had been no body to bury, so they had buried an empty casket because Darcy needed something to physical to make her mind understand this was real.  Her parents thought this was a waste of money, but she didn’t care.  This was what she needed.

Clint had shown up to the small, private ceremony.  She hadn’t spoken to him since he had told her of Phil’s death.  She wondered how he had found out about the ceremony, but then remembered his line of work and decided it probably hadn’t been hard to figure out.  Jane had taken her parents aside at the end of the ceremony so she could have a moment alone with Clint.

“Hi,” she said, still staring at the hole.

“Hey,” he said.  After an awkward pause he added, “Shield had their own ceremony, you know.”

Darcy snapped her head over to him.  “No, I didn’t know,” she said levelly.

“Yeah,” he said, still not looking at her.  “Fury arranged everything.  All the Avengers were there.  Tony Stark cried, though he’d say he didn’t.”

“And he didn’t think Phil’s family should be made aware?” She asked.

“Phil kept you hidden.  His official file says he was an only child and his parents died.”

“Of course,” Darcy said, tears stinging her eyes again.

“Hey,” Clint said, gripping her shoulders and turning her to look at him. “Phil did that because he loved you.  Shield would have made your life hell, and you could have been a target for the enemy of the week.  Phil loved you too much to let that happen, even if that meant that it made him miserable.”

“But Fury knew.”

“Fury’s also an asshole,” Clint shrugged.  “I’m not going to say leaving you out was wrong or right, but it was in line with everything Phil had done to protect you when he was alive.”

Darcy nodded.  She wanted to be angry with Fury, but he probably had left her out on purpose because that’s what Phil would have wanted.

“I never said I was sorry,” Darcy said, not looking back at Clint.  “I was so terrible when you told me, and I was so upset I didn’t even listen to what all you were saying.”

“Darce,” he said softly, tilting her chin with one finger so she would look at him.  “We both were in a bad place.  How can I be mad at you when you just lost your brother.”

“You could be mad because I didn’t hear what had happened to you, and then I said things that must have made you think I blamed you.”

“You should blame me.”

“No, Clint,” she said forcefully.

“I should have seen it coming, Darce.”

“Should have seen it like this?” She asked, rolling up on her toes to kiss him softly on the cheek.  Clint blushed faintly as she pulled back.  “Phil left me you, so I can’t let go of that, and I can’t let you think any of this was your fault.  Don’t let me lose you at the same time.”

“Okay,” Clint said, looking over her shoulder.  “I should get going.  Your parents are coming back.”

“I definitely like you too much to let you deal with that,” Darcy smiled.  “Now get out of here, and text me later.”

Clint leaned down and kissed the top of her head.  “Take care of yourself, Bear,” he said before he turned to walk away.

Darcy watched him leave, steeling herself for the return of her parents.  They were next to her before she knew it.

“Who was that?” Her mom asked, clearly checking him out.

“One of Phil’s work friends.”

“You two seemed friendly,” her dad said with a hint of disapproval.

“He’s a nice enough guy,” Darcy said.  “He just wanted to tell me that Phil was talking about me before the end.  It was sweet of him to pass that along.”

“He seems kind of old for you,” her dad continued.

“Dad,” Darcy sighed, “not every guy is a potential boyfriend.”

“So you wouldn’t mind giving me his number?” Her mom asked.

“Mom!” Darcy exclaimed.

“What?  He was good looking.”

“And that’s our sign this funeral is over,” Darcy said.  “Obviously we’re done grieving if you’re looking to hook up.”

“Now that’s not fair Darcy,” her mom started to say.

“Nah, we need to get going anyway,” Darcy said, grabbing Jane’s hand.  “We need to get back to the hotel so we can pack up before our flight tonight.”

“I don’t know why you need to go to England,” her dad complained.

“That’s fine Dad,” she said.  “You don’t have to get it.  It’s simply where the work is taking us.”

Her dad grumbled some more but stayed quiet.

“Come kiss your mother before you leave,” her mom said, pulling Darcy into her.  Darcy dutifully kissed her and did an awkward side hug with her dad, and then walked to the car with Jane,

“So just a friend?” Jane said with a small smile.

“God I hope not,” Darcy sighed happily.  “Have you seen his arms?” she asked, grinning wide.

Jane laughed.  “I’m glad you made up.”

“Yeah, me too,” Darcy said as her phone vibrated.

**I like it when you smile.  Hope you have plenty of reasons to smile.**

Darcy quickly twisted to look out the windows of the car.

**Yeah, I can see you, but you’ll never see me.**

Jane looked over Darcy’s shoulder at her phone and nodded.  “I think you’re going to be just fine.”


	25. Phil Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil heads to London because May thinks it will help him remember.

It had been several months since Phil had started to remember his sister.  May was helping as best she could without breaking her orders (from Fury, he assumed).  He wanted to be mad, but she had always been like that, at least he thought so.  He was having trouble determining what was real from his past and what was filler.  He started poking at memories and realized that his fake memories were too crisp at the edges.  Things he shouldn’t be able to remember exactly were in stark detail, and when he would come back to the memories days later, they were exactly the same.  They were like perfectly preserved snapshots.  His real memories were fuzzy at the edges.  Sometimes his sister would be wearing a purple shirt, and days later the same memory would put her in green.  He had filled three notebooks with memories and how they did or did not change when he came back to them.  He kept the notebooks locked in his desk, and only pulled them out when he had the time to sit alone and test his memories.

All his hard work had been paying off.  He was remembering more and more.   He had a notebook of sister memories-giving her a book on her 5th birthday, sipping hot chocolate on a dorm room couch, quizzing her on science terms.  But the most important bit stayed in the fog.  He couldn’t remember her name.  Everytime he pushed for a bit of conversation that called her by name he got nothing.  The closest he got was “bear,” which he guessed was a nickname.

Today he was locked in his office trying to remember her name.  He was jumping from memory to memory trying to find her name.  He could do so much with a name.  But still, it eluded him.  When a knock broke him from a memory he was certain would give him what he wanted, he barked out a frustrated, “What?!”

“We have a situation,” Melinda said through the door.  He sighed.  If she was interrupting him, it must be important.  She knew what he did when he locked himself in the office.

“Come in,” he called, pressing a button to unlock the door.

“There’s a situation in London,” she said without preamble.

“Are we needed?”

“Not to fight.  It appears Thor has that in hand,” she said.

“Okay,” he said, uncertain why she was here at all, if that was the case.  “What are we needed for then?”

“Alien tech recovery and clean-up,” she said looking at him carefully.

“And it needs to be us?”

May’s lips formed a thin line, clearly unhappy that he was missing something.  “I think Fitzsimmons would like to get their hands on the tech.”

Phil looked at her, trying to understand what she wasn’t saying.  “You think it should be us for another reason, though?”

She didn’t respond, just raised her eyebrows.

“You think this will help me remember her, don’t you?”

Still she did not respond, instead tilting her head to acknowledge his statement before turning to leave.  

“You’ve already reset our flight plan to send us there,” he said.

Her head nodded once, and she was gone.

Several hours later they were landing outside of the city and loading the cars with all the equipment they would need to gather the tech.  Phil felt a knot in his stomach.  Ever since Melinda had left his office he had been trying to figure out why she thought this would help him.  He thought back to Thor’s first arrival and realized that the memories jumped like a skipping record.  So his sister was somehow connected to Thor.  That must mean that May thought that there was a chance he would remember more by going to London.  He kept his cool demeanor on as armour, but inside he was a mess.

As the SUVs rolled up to the site he looked around, surveying the damage and determining the best course of action.  Once he had given his orders, he walked around the wreckage, trying to figure out what about this May thought would help him.  As he looked, he saw a small group of people standing together talking and taking in the damage.  He moved toward them to get them out of what should have been a secure area.  His intentions, though, were thrown to the side when the woman with her back to him turned to look at something, and he saw her face.

“Darcy,” he breathed, legs becoming jelly as he fell to his knees.  “Her name is Darcy,” he said as her eyes fell on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay friends, there's SO MUCH for me to say!  
> 1\. You all are AMAZING. I am continually blown away by how many of you comment and give me kudos. You are all very precious to me.  
> 2\. I am about to go visit my family in Indiana, and I'll be traveling by train. Basically, I'll have 30ish hours of travel and no internet. I plan on doing a TON of writing during that time, both on this story and on other things. If you want me to do a one-shot for you, send me your prompt on tumblr (thestanceyg) before 10 PM Eastern on Thursday. I'll write down all the prompts and work on them while I travel. (I'll probably do this again on my trip back.)  
> 3\. Finally, I'm dying my hair purple a week from today, but I can't decide which shade of purple. If you have suggestions, let me know! I'm going to give my stylist a LOT of leeway to do what she thinks is best, but I'd love some input if you have any!


	26. Darcy Sees Phil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy sees Phil, but Jane's not so sure about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I wrote this on the train which meant no fact checking timelines and, honestly, I don't care. This story had to deviate some no matter what, so if it does, I'm just going to say "AU" instead of "I'm too lazy to fact check."

Darcy was furiously texting Clint now that the fight was over and she had time to evaluate what had just happened.

            **Dude.  Where ARE you?**

**Babe, I can’t say.**

**Well you need to get your ass to London.**

**I want to see you too.**

**Well, yes, but no.  Friggin’ alien dark elf things just attacked!**

**WHAT?  ARE YOU OKAY?**

**Yeah, it’s over now.  They’re gone.  But I just…..I need you?**

**Ohhh babe.**

**I almost died.  You could die any time because this is like your everyday.  I just need to know you’re still here.**

**You won’t lose me.**

**Like I didn’t lose IC?**

It was several minutes before the next text came through.

            **I can’t be there until tomorrow.  I have some things to wrap up here.**

**Stay safe.**

“Earth to Darcy!” Jane yelled in her ear.

            “Whoa!  What?”

            “I’ve been trying to get your attention for, like 5 minutes!” Jane said, exasperated.

            “Sorry.  I was just thinking about how this was like New Mexico, and…,”  Darcy couldn’t finish the sentence, but Jane understood anyway.

            “You were thinking about him again.”

            Darcy nodded her head.

            “Were you talking to Clint?”

            “Yeah, I just…..I almost lost you, I did lose Cap, and I just needed to know he was still okay, ya know?”

            Jane nodded.

            “Which one was Clint?” Erik asked.

            “The one with the nice arms,” Jane and Darcy said at the same time,

            “Looks like we have company,” Ian said, nodding his head toward the man moving toward them.

            Jane’s face paled as she looked where Ian had motioned.

            “Umm, Darce,” Jane said shakily.

            “What?” Darcy asked, turning to look for herself.

            It took a moment for her eyes to see what the others were looking at, but as she locked eyes with the man about 50 feet from them, he fell to his knees.  She had already started running before he hit the ground.

            “Cap!” She yelled over and over again, each time more of a sob and less intelligible.  By the time she had reached him, he was looking up at her as she dropped down in front of him, her hands pulling him into a fierce hug,

            “Not so fast,” Jane raged behind them, pulling Darcy away.  “Phil is dead, so who the hell are you?”

            “Jane!”  Darcy shouted.

            “No Darcy!  I won’t let you get your hopes up for this imposter!”  Jane hauled Imposter Phil up by his jacket (which Darcy found fairly impressive), and looked at him with murder in her eyes.  “I asked who the hell you are.”

            “Don’t move!”  A voice behind them yelled, startling Darcy into looking away from Phil.  A young woman with long dark hair had a gun trained on them.  “Take your hands off him!” She yelled.

            Jane stared back defiantly.  “Not until I have my answers,” she said, balling her fistfuls of jacket tighter.  “Besides, shooting me would be very bad for your health.”

            “That’s not how that works,” the girl called back.

            “Really?!” Darcy yelled.  “You think shooting Thor’s girlfriend is going to go well for you?”

            The woman’s arms wavered a bit, but didn’t drop.

            “How do I know that’s who you are?” She yelled back.

            “Skye,” a new voice warned, “put the gun down.”

            “You!” Jane yelled, still holding Phil, and now shaking him a bit, “You’re the one that took us to Norway!”

            “Yes, Dr. Foster, I am.”

            “Dr. Foster?” A Scottish voice called out.  “THE Dr. Foster?”

            “Yes, Fitz,” the older woman sighed.  “Right now, though, we need to all calm down and figure out what’s happening here.”

            “Yes,” Jane spat, “Like who this imposter is.  Phil Coulson is dead.”

            “Was dead, actually,” a British voice supplied. ”Clearly he was revived.”

            “We had a funeral for you,” Darcy said, voice cracking.  “I buried you Phil, and mom and dad were terrible, and Jane and Clint were there.  And Clint said Fury had a service for you too, but I wasn’t invited because that’s what you would have wanted- me protected from Shield, even in death.”  She started to hiccup as she fought another wave of tears.  “I’ve spent the last eight months and 17 days being so, so sorry about so many things I wouldn’t get to share with you; the things I didn’t get to tell you.  And you’ve been alive this whole time?”

            “I wasn’t alive the whole time,” he said, carefully peeling Jane’s hands off him.  “It was a long terrible process that I only remember parts of.”

            “How long have you been alive?” Jane demanded.

            “Most of those 8 months and 17 days,” he admitted.

            “And I couldn’t know because…?” Darcy asked.

            “Because they wiped my memories of you,” Phil said, causing more than just Darcy to gasp.

            “Who wiped your memories?” Jane asked through gritted teeth.

            Phil didn’t answer.

            “Fury,” Darcy said, realizing who was the only person that could pull that off.

            Phil nodded.

            “I’m going to make him pay,” Darcy and Jane said at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the plan-I did some writing on the train, so I'm hoping to have things go up every day for the next several days. Most of it is prompt fills, so not FT additions.


	27. Phil Sees Clint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for Phil to face a semi-broken Clint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GRAHHHHHHH!
> 
> I don't love this chapter. It fought me every step of the way. I'm trying to wrestle this story back to the flirty bits with Darcy and Clint while Phil is exasperated by it all, and it WON'T LET ME.

It had taken hours of talking before Darcy had heard the whole story and Jane felt truly convinced that Phil was, indeed, himself. Fitzsimmons wanted to spend time talking to Jane, and Phil wanted to talk to Darcy to see if she could help with his memories, but the day had already been long and the ladies were exhausted.  Phil reluctantly let them go back to where they were staying with a promise to meet back up in the morning.

            Back at the Bus, Phil took May to the side once everyone else had gone their separate ways. 

            “Thank you,” he said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.  “I don’t know that I can repay you for giving me Darcy back.”

            May gave a small smile and nodded.  Before she left his office, though, she turned and looked at him.  “This was me repaying you.  We’re even now.”

            Phil nodded, and May left.  Phil looked around his office. He had paperwork to do, but today had exhausted him.  Memories had started flooding back once he remembered Darcy’s name.  While his day had not been as trying as hers, the return of his memories had been taxing. He decided to go to bed, but set an alarm for an early morning.

            The next morning he had done three hours of paperwork before he felt like it was acceptable to head over to see Darcy.  However, he was quickly rethinking that.  No one had answered when he had knocked on the door, so he had decided to pick the lock, only to find that the door was already unlocked.  He pulled out his gun and slowly moved through the house.  Darcy wasn’t stupid enough to leave the front door unlocked.  Something was wrong.

            Except things weren’t wrong, he soon realized as he turned into the living room.  Darcy was asleep on the floor, and Clint was curled around her.  That explained the unlocked door.  Clint had probably picked it when he arrived last night.  Phil lowered his gun and ran his hand over his face.  He wasn’t sure that he was ready to face Clint, but it looked like he didn’t have a choice now.

            “Cap?” he heard Darcy call out groggily.

            “Shhhh,” he called, “go back to sleep Bear.”

            Darcy didn’t say anything more, so Phil let himself back out.  Even though it was after 9 now, he went to a nearby market and picked up some items for breakfast and made his way back to the house.  In the kitchen he started the coffee and began making French toast.  It wasn’t long before he heard rustling that indicated people were waking up.

            He wasn’t expecting to hear Clint draw a knife in the kitchen doorway.

            “Who the fuck are you?” he said in a hoarse whisper.   

            Phil turned off the stove and slowly faced Clint, keeping his hands clearly visible.  As soon as he was fully facing Clint, Clint turned pale.

            “What…,” he said, trailing off, blinking furiously.  “I am not seeing you.  You’re not here,” he started saying.  “It wasn’t my fault!”  He pursed his lips and then called out, “Babe!” His eyes never left Phil.  “I…I think I’m hallucinating again,” he said, voice breaking a bit.

            Phil frowned a little at that, but dared not move or speak because shaken as he was, Clint’s grip on his knife had never wavered.

            Darcy stumbled into the kitchen only half awake.  She took Clint’s empty hand in hers and started tracing her nails up and down his arm with her other hand.  As Phil watched Clint regain control of himself, he wondered what all had happened in the eight months he had lost.

            “What did you see this time?” Darcy asked.

            “Phil,” Clint said, still looking at him.

            Darcy’s head snapped up and finally looked over to Phil.

            “You’re not hallucinating,” Darcy said as she plucked the knife from Clint’s hand.  “That’s actually Phil.”

            Clint finally took his eyes off Phil and looked down at Darcy.  “Babe, your brother is dead,” he said gently.

            “Was,” Phil said, drawing Clint’s attention.  “For several days, actually,” he added.

            Darcy shot him a warning look as she guided Clint to sit in a bar stool at the island.

            “I thought I would have time to prepare you this morning before we saw him,” Darcy soothed as she perched on his lap.

            “And how do you prepare someone to learn their old boss isn’t dead?” Clint asked as he curled an arm around Darcy’s waist to keep her steady. 

            “I hadn’t gotten that far,” Darcy said.  “I didn’t expect you until later, and I wasn’t exactly awake when you got here.”

            “Clint,” Phil said clearing his throat a little.  “Do we need to have a talk?”

            Clint didn’t say anything, but watched as Darcy took the cup of coffee Phil offered her.

            “I don’t know Coulson,” Clint finally said.  “Do we?”

            Darcy groaned.  “Brothers!” she mumbled under her breath.  “I’m going to go get the others up,” she said sliding from Clint’s lap.  “You two do whatever you need to before I get back.”

            They both watched Darcy leave the kitchen, and then Clint turned to look at Phil again.

            “So,” he said, blowing out a breath with the word.  “Not dead?”

            “Clearly,” Phil answered, pouring a cup of coffee for Clint.

            “And you weren’t going to tell me?”

            Phil could see the hurt, though Clint was hiding it well.

            “It was complicated,” Phil replied.

            “Was?”

            “I remembered Darcy, so now it’s not.”

            “Remembered?” Clint asked.

            “Some of my memories were wiped in the process that saved my life,” Phil said, drinking from his own coffee mug.  “Darcy was one of those memories.”

            “They made you forget Darcy?” Clint asked, incredulous.  “Who would allow such a thing?”

            Phil didn’t answer, opting to let Clint figure it out on his own.

            “Son of a bitch!” Clint cursed as he realized who could order such a thing.  “Fury’s gone too far.”

            “You’re not the only one that thinks so.”

            “I’m going to make him pay,” Clint vowed.

            “You’re not the only one,” Phil smiled.


	28. Darcy Needs a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and the crew discuss the future.

            After everyone had eaten and showered, Darcy decided it was time to have some serious discussions.

            “So,” she said looking between Phil and Clint, “what happens now?”

            “What do you mean?” Clint asked.

            “Well, Phil has a team that he needs to get back to, you need to get to a debrief, and I’m…well, I’m not sure what I’m doing, but where do things go from here?”

            “My first concern is keeping you safe,” Phil said.  “This is twice now that you’ve been in serious danger, and Jane’s research is just going to put you on the radar of some shady organizations.  Not to mention her connection to Thor.”

            “I can take care of myself,” Darcy huffed.

            “Of course you can babe,” Clint said kissing her temple, “but I think Phil would like to find a way to add a layer of protection so you don’t have to take care of yourself all the time.  You gotta sleep sometime.”

            Darcy grudgingly nodded her head.  She had to admit that they probably had a better handle on just how bad things could get.  “Fine,” she said, “what’s your idea?”

            “I was thinking that maybe Stark could offer Jane some lab space and housing at his tower,” Phil said.

            “How does that protect me?” Darcy asked. 

            “Jane won’t go anywhere without you,” Clint said.  “But why the secrecy?  You could just ask him to take in Darcy, Phil.”

            Phil cleared his throat.  “I’d rather not spread the word that I’m alive, and I definitely don’t want to broadcast that Darcy is related to me.”

            “I get not telling people we’re related,” Darcy said, “but why can’t you be alive?”

            “It doesn’t help us,” Phil said simply.  “If I’m not acknowledging our relationship, then me being alive doesn’t get you into the tower.”

            “No, there’s more to it than that,” Clint said staring Phil down.  “Because Stark would listen to your suggestion about moving Jane and Darcy.  What is it?”

            “I also, maybe, don’t want Fury to realize I’ve figured out everything.”

            “Oh IC!”  Darcy cried, “I knew you were a devious shit!”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Phil said blandly while looking at his hands.

            “It’s easier to get him back if he doesn’t know that you know there’s a reason to get him back. He won’t suspect anything.”

            Phil simply looked at Darcy and said, “So?”

            Darcy hugged Phil.  “I love my devious brother.  He’s the most fun brother.”

            “But how do we put the idea into Stark’s head to take on Jane?” Clint asked, trying to get them back on track.

            “You,” Darcy said.  “You told me he offered you a place to live there.  Tell him you were here when all this shit went down and this would be a good way to help Thor out, especially since he won’t need the apartment set aside for him.”

            “Dr. Foster is also on the cutting edge of her field.  If you tell Stark that Shield is thinking about locking her away in their science department, he’ll want to steal her before we can,” Phil added.

            “You guys are putting an awful lot of stock into me being able to convince Tony Stark of something.  I don’t even think he likes me that much.”

            “You’re a spy!” Darcy cried.  “Play the long game!  Move in.  His place has to be miles ahead of that shithole you call an apartment at Shield.  Then ask him to design you some arrows.  He’ll eat that up.  While in the lab, talk to him about what happened here and how you’re worried about how Thor will react if something happens to Jane while he’s gone.  Then throw in that Shield’s interested in her, so maybe it’s not a big deal after all.  You should be able to get us an offer in two weeks, tops.”

            “Are you sure you haven’t met Stark?” Clint asked, “Because that’s actually a pretty good read on him.”

            “He’s a scientist.  I’m good at managing those.  Tony Stark might be a billionaire, but he’s still a scientist and I know how they think.”

            “And she’s not wrong,” Phil said.  “I think her plan would work.”

            “I think you’re putting a lot of faith into my ability to manipulate Stark.”

            “Clint,” Phil said, “we both know you’re capable.”

            “Plus,” Darcy added, “you could always throw in that you think I’m both hot and great at keeping Jane focused.  Stark seems like the kind of guy that would put out the offer just to have a hot girl in the lab.”

            Phil sighed deeply.  “Bear, you are very sure of yourself.”

            “Am I wrong?” she challenged.

            “No, you’re not,” Clint said.  “But he better keep his hands to himself.  You’re mine.”  Clint wrapped his hands around Darcy’s waist and nuzzled her neck.

            “Okay, we definitely need to have a talk,” Phil groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally unrelated to the story:  
> I am working on a gift for my husband and could use some ideas if you have any. I'm making a set of 12 "adventures" that we can do over the course of a year (one per month). They don't need to be anything special (for example, one I have is to explore a new city), but I could use some suggestions. If you have any ideas, leave a comment or drop me a message on tumblr.


	29. Phil has a Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil has a talk with Clint. Yes, that talk.

            Clint walked Phil to his car.

            “I’ll take care of her, you know” Clint said.  “I’ll make sure Stark takes her in, even if I have to move her into my place to do it.”

            Phil sighed and looked at Clint.  “I know you will,” he said slowly “but I don’t think you understand what she means to me and what I will do to you if she gets hurt.”

            “Sir?” Clint asked.

            “Darcy is my only family.  I might be her big brother and her protector, but she’s the one who saved me.  She’s the reason I always come home.  I have to be the best I can be so I’m here for her, and knowing I have to come home has been the only reason I’ve made it out of several situations.  So let me be very clear, Clint, when I say that if you do not protect her, both physically and emotionally, what I am planning for Fury will look like going for ice cream compared to what I will do to you.  I won’t kill you, but you will wish you were dead, and you will spend every breathing moment trying to make me grant you mercy that will not come.  You get her into that tower, and you take care of her, or I will see to it that your life is ruined.”

            Clint let out a low whistle.  “Sounded like you meant every word of that, Phil.”

            “You doubt me?”

            “Hell no.  I’m just glad I didn’t also get your 'I’m disappointed' face.  Seriously, did you teach it to Cap?  Because his looks a lot like yours.”

            “Is this funny to you?” Phil asked coolly.

            Clint scratched the back of his neck.  “Not really, sir, I’m just not used to being on this side of your wrath and it’s kind of uncomfortable.  You know I stay stupid shit when I get nervous.”

            “If you think this is my wrath, then you’re going to have a problem if you hurt my sister.”

            Clint opened his mouth and then shut it again, apparently deciding not to say whatever was on his mind.

            “IC!” Darcy yelled from the door, “Are you done intimidating my boyfriend yet?”

            Phil looked at Clint, who was refusing to look him in the eye.  “Of course, Bear,” he called back.  Then he whispered to Clint.  “Take care of her for me while I can’t.”

            “You know she won’t let me do anything of the sort Phil,” Clint said.

            Phil smiled.  “Good.  I see you understand her.  You’ll take care of her anyway.”

            “Of course,” Clint said.  “Now, I think I have a phone call to make if I’m going to do that.”

            Phil held out his hand and Clint shook it.  “Thank you,” Phil said softly.  “I need to know she’s okay, and I know you can do that.”

            Clint said nothing, but nodded his head and turned toward Darcy.  Phil got in his car, but didn’t turn it on.  Instead he picked up his phone.

            “May,” he said, “I seem to be in town.  What supplies should I pick up before we head out?”

            “You’re done here?” May asked, gently probing to see how things had gone.

            “For now,” Phil answered, keeping his voice light.  “There’s more go be done, but not here.”  He was certain May would understand what he was saying.  That’s why they were such a good team.

            “Hold while I talk to Simmons about what the med bay needs,” she said, quickly cutting the line to hold music that Skye must have selected.

            As long as Clint got Darcy and Jane in the Tower, he could put all his attention on an annoying, eye patched problem.  Until then, though, he knew he had some long nights of surveillance ahead of him.  He wondered if Clint would notice the cameras he had placed, and if he would tell Darcy about them when he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry this was a short chapter, and that I didn't respond to all the comments last chapter. If you're curious what's been going on, check out this post for info.  
> [Hopefully this links to my tumblr](http://thestanceyg.tumblr.com/post/130207364866/ive-been-sick-this-past-week-and-while-it-hasnt)


	30. Darcy Meets Tony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy meets Tony because he has a point to prove.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to get this moving along to the good stuff, so yay new (short) chapter. Yesterday While I was waiting for my car to get worked on, I suddenly had a paragraph from the next chapter come to me, and I scribbled it on napkins. I'm excited to get there (and reveal some of Phil's plan for Fury), so I had to get this out of the way!

            “I KNEW IT!” a voice yelled, startling Darcy awake.  She screwed her eyes shut and rolled into Clint.

            “Do your thing,” she whined at him.  “Make the noise stop.”

            She listened as Clint groaned and threw something.

            “HEY!” the voice called.  “That’s no way to treat you landlord!”

            Darcy’s eyes shot open and looked at Clint, who was reaching for Darcy’s pillow to pull over his head since, apparently, his pillow had been the earlier projectile.  Since Clint wasn’t going to act like an adult, Darcy figured she should.

            “You must be Mr. Stark” she said, sitting up.

            “Tony,” he said flippantly, “Never Mr. Stark.”

            “Tony,” she agreed, nodding her head to him.  “Why are you here when I want to be asleep?”

            Tony held up his phone and snapped a picture.  “Just proving to Pepper I was right.  I knew Barton couldn’t have been just interested in Foster’s safety.”

            “That’s Hawkeye to you,” Clint said from under Darcy’s pillow

            “So how long has this been going on?” Tony asked, sitting on the foot of the bed.

            “When did Cap set us up?” Darcy asked Clint, pulling the pillow off his head.

            “Steve Rogers introduced you?” Tony asked.

            “No,” Darcy said a little groggily, “My brother.”

            “Fanboy?” Tony asked.

            “I’ll say,” Clint replied, sitting up.

            “When?” Darcy repeated, poking Clint.

            “Ow,” Clint said, pouting.  “You know I’m shit at dates, babe.  I don’t know.”

            “Sometime after New Mexico,” Darcy said.

            “Call your brother and ask,” Tony suggested.

            “First of all, I am not calling my brother at,” she turned to look at the clock, “3:30 in the fucking morning.”

            Clint pulled her into a hug, pushing her face into his shoulder and turned to look at Tony, “And secondly she can’t because he’s dead.”

            Darcy sniffled into Clint’s shoulder, realizing what Clint was doing.

            “Shit,” Tony said.  “I’ll, uh, just leave you two alone then.”  Darcy felt the bed shift.  “I’ll be in to check out Foster’s lab later this week, Lewis,” he called, and then she heard the door open and shut.

            “Did I almost fuck that up because I wasn’t awake enough to think straight?” Darcy whispered.

            “Nah, you’re fine,” Clint said, pulling her off him.  “It’s easier to lie when it’s mostly the truth.”

            “But if he checks my file, it officially says I’m an only child.”

            “Eh,” Clint said, shrugging, “you just say he’s your brother in the same way Thor is.”

            Darcy responded by flopping back onto the pillow.  “Great,” she complained, “now I’m wide awake.”

            “I think I can help with that,” Clint said, bracketing her in place with his arms which she promptly turned to lick.  “You’re so strange,” Clint laughed.

            “You love it,” she said.

            “Yeah, I do,” he smiled as he dipped down to kiss her.  “Now then,” he said as he pulled back, “let’s see if I can wear you out.”


	31. Phil has a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil sets his revenge in motion.

            Phil made his way over to Skye in the lounge, patiently waiting for her to look up from her computer before sitting down across from her.

            “I need you to do something for me.”

            “A mission?” She asked excitedly.

            “No, this is more personal,” he said, dropping his voice a bit.

            “Uhh, okay?” She said confused.  “What can I do for you, AC?”

            He dropped a folder onto the table in front of them.  “I need you to do a little hacking, and I need you to be sloppy when covering your trail.”

            “Huh?” She asked inelegantly.  “Why would you want that?”

            “Also, I want you to do it from a networked computer instead of your clean laptop.”

            “I don’t know if you understand how hacking works, but doing it from a networked computer is a terrible idea.  That’s how you get caught.”

            “I know,” he said looking at her.

            “What is this about AC?” she asked picking up the folder.  “Holy shit!  This is a list of potential science recruits.”

            “Yes, it is,” he said.

            “Just what are you asking me to do?” she asked, pulling her eyes off the list, fixing them on Phil.

            “I want you to hack SI and look for information about the people on this list.  I want you to get caught but act like you’re trying not to get caught.”

            “Uhhh, then Stark would know who Shield was looking to nab.”

            “Yes,” he said rising.  “Just a project for whenever you have downtime,” he said.  “I have faith in you doing this properly.”

            “Is this an order?” she asked, causing him to turn back to her.

            “No,” he said plainly, “it’s a favor.”

            Skye picked up the folder and slid it into a bag sitting next to her.  “Okay,” she said nodding and looking back down at her laptop.  As he moved to leave once again, she stopped him by asking quietly, “Does this have to do with Darcy?”

            He nodded his head.  “It’s about so much more than her, but, yes, everything is always about her.”

            “Who is she to you?” Skye asked.  “Her file makes no mention of you.  Team speculation is she's an ex, like 'the one that got away,' but I don't see that.”

            “Her file wouldn’t mention me.  I spent considerable time covering those tracks.”

            “It’s just,” Skye said haltingly, “she’s important to you, but I can’t figure out why.  I didn’t hear everything she said to you in that wreckage.  Who is she?”

            “My sister,” Phil said looking at Skye carefully.  “And that’s need-to-know information.”

            “And I needed to know?” She asked.

            “Yes.  Because you understand more than anyone else on the Bus just what you would do for family.”  As he finished, Phil turned and did leave, heading back to his office.  He wasn’t surprised to see May walk in behind him.

            “Close the door please,” he asked.

            She closed the door and turned to him.  “What are you doing Phil?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Your little side project for Skye?”

            “I’m going to do to Fury what he did to me-take away his resources.”

            “Phil…”

            “I know what you’re going to say and you’re wrong,” he said.  May closed her mouth and waited for Phil to continue.  “All of those scientists will be safe with Stark, and they won’t be lost to Shield.  Stark will play with Shield if asked properly.”

            “He won’t do anything for Fury,” May said.

            “I know.  I’m counting on it.”

            “Phil?”

            “Stark will play nice with me.  I’m Fury’s ace.  But I won’t go.  Not until Nick goes face-to-face with the Avengers and tells them exactly what he did to me-including erasing Darcy-while I watch him take what they dish out.  It’s exactly what he deserves.”

            “And are you prepared to deal with their wrath?”

            “They won’t be mad at me.  How can they be?  How can they be mad when he took Darcy from me?  They’ll see exactly what I was doing. Well, Stark will at least.  He’ll know it was me that led him to all those scientists.”

            “And then?”  May sked.  “Is that all you have planned for Fury?”

            “Of course not,” Phil said.  “Then I make sure Darcy has access to him and let her and her new friends in Stark Tower do whatever they feel is appropriate.  She’ll tear him apart the way only Darcy can.  I can only imagine what she’ll plan when she has the Avengers at her fingertips.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have half of a Game of Love chapter, and half a Phucky fic done. I had hoped to put up one of those Monday or Tuesday, but they both stalled out on me. But this chapter was screaming to get out, so I stopped fighting. Hopefully I can do something with those now that I've gotten this out.
> 
> Also, we're *probably* jumping to CA:TWS next chapter.


	32. Darcy Needs to Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint is being cagey, Phil isn't answering, and Darcy has a bad feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've fudged around with details here a bit. It's AU. Expect it to be a bit more AU from here on out because in AoS Phil and Avengers haven't met up, but that's clearly going to happen for me. I'm not going to be overly concerned with making it fit canon perfectly, but I'm not going to ignore it either.

Darcy was happily humming along to the music Jarvis had pumped into the lab while Jane was working on an equation on the wall of white board when her phone chirped. 

**Where are you?**

Darcy frowned at her phone.

**What’s wrong?** She sent back instead of answering.

**A lot.  Where. Are. You.**

Usually Clint wasn’t this overbearing.  She decided not to play with him.  **In Jane’s lab.**  She couldn’t help herself.  She sent off another quick text.  **You know, where I work.**

**Please stay there until I get there.**

Now Darcy was worried. Clint wasn’t usually so secretive with why he wanted her to do things.  Her stomach knotted up.  Something was wrong.  Something he didn’t think he should say over text. 

Darcy glanced up at Jane and thought about her options.  She decided this was probably the right time to use her “emergency” chat line with Phil.  She opened up the window and worked her way through all the security before she was able to send her message.

_IC,_

_How is your garden?  It’s looking kind of stormy over here._

_Bear_

It wasn’t long before a ping alerted her to a message.

_Uhh, AC didn’t tell me about his secret code, but things are no bueno.  Be safe._

_-S_

Now Darcy was about to lose it.  Phil didn’t answer, Clint was being cagey.  It was like New York all over again. 

“Jarvis?”  Darcy asked.

“Yes Miss Lewis?”

“Do you have any idea what the fuck is going on?”

“I’m sorry I’m not sure what you mean,” he replied.

Jane looked over her shoulder at Darcy.  “What’s going on Darce?”

Darcy bit her lip, trying to decide what to say.  Finally she said, “This is feeling a lot like when May sent us to Norway.”

Jane stared at Darcy for a moment and then practically sprinted across the room, sitting next to Darcy.  “Tell me everything,” she said with serious eyes.

Darcy showed Jane Clint’s texts and the message to Phil explaining how she was getting the same feeling she got in the pit of her stomach a few hours before May had shown up in their lab.  She finished up with, “They both know I hate it when they don’t tell me what’s happening!”

Jane stood and pulled Darcy up.  “Jarvis?” She asked. 

“Yes Dr. Foster?”

“Is Tony in his lab?”

“Yes, he is,” Jarvis answered.

“Perfect,” Jane said tugging on Darcy.  “Let’s go get some answers.”

“But Clint told me to stay put,” Darcy frowned,

“Yeah, well he should have told you why,” Jane threw back.  “Besides, you didn’t say you would.”

Clint would probably be furious, but dammit, Darcy wanted answers.

“Let’s do this,” she said, following Jane into the hallway, all but storming into Tony’s lab moments later.

“What’s up Hawkgirl and Hammerlady?”  Tony snarked when he noticed them.

“We have a problem,” Jane said.

“Hey!”  Stark said defensively, “I haven’t touched anything in your lab lately!”

“No, not that,” Jane shook off, “like outside problems.”

“Press?  I can get Pepper on it.”

“Tony, I need you to pay attention to me right now or so help me Thor I will modify my taser and burn your balls off!” Darcy yelled.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, baby bird,” he said, holding his hands up, “let’s start over.  What’s going on.”

“We’re hoping you can tell us,” Jane said.

“Clint sent me some super vague but very frightening messages about staying put and being safe.  I felt weird about it and messaged a friend in Shield.  All I got back was a message that shit was going down and to be safe.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Darcy, “Who are you messaging at Shield?’

“Does that even matter right now?  Of course I know people at Shield.  They stole Jane’s shit and Clint works for them.”

Darcy could see the moment Tony decided to table the matter, but that it wasn’t going to actually be dropped.  “What do you want from me?” He asked, eyes flicking between the two of them.

Just then the vent popped open and Clint dropped down.

“Stark, we have a problem,” Clint said before he noticed Darcy.  “I thought I told you to stay put,” he said to her.

“That doesn’t matter at the moment,” Tony said before Darcy could start a fight with Clint.  “What’s the problem?”

“Shield is trying to arrest Captain America.”

“What?!” Darcy and Jane said at the same time.

“And?” Tony asked, reading Clint’s face.

“And Nat went dark with the message that she’s helping Steve.”

“And,” Tony repeated.

“I got a message from an uncompromised source at Shield.  Hydra is alive and well.  It’s been playing the long game inside Shield the entire time.”

The room erupted into a cacophony of yells.

“Everyone stop!”  Clint yelled over it all.  “I can’t hear anyone if you’re all yelling.  My hearing aids aren’t that good.”

Tony moved over to Clint and touched his ear.  “I bet I could…,” he started to say.

“Later Stark,” Clint said, swatting away the hand.  “We need to get to work.”

“Sir?”  Jarvis interrupted.

“Yeah J?”  Tony said.

“You might want to see this,” Jarvis said, projecting a file onto the wall.

“What am I looking at?” Tony asked.

“Maria Hill sent this to Mr. Barton moments ago.”

Tony turned to Clint, “What is this a list for?”

“And why are all our names on there?”  Darcy asked as she performed a search function looking for each of them.

“Darce, should we call...,” Clint started to say.

“Already tried,” Darcy cut him off.  “All I got was a ‘it’s not good, be safe’ from one of his people.  I assume he didn’t respond to your text after he told you about Hyrda?”

Clint nodded.

“We are so talking about that after we figure out how to save to world,” Tony said, turning back to his own holographic display.  “J, run every employee’s name against that list and let me know what you find.”

“Of course, sir,” Jarvis answered.

“Tony?”  Clint asked.

“If we’re all on that list that means anyone else on that list we can trust.  We go from there,” Tony said.  “Now let’s get to work.”


	33. Phil Needs a Garden Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shield has fallen but Phil needs to check on the garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as some of you saw, I spent all of last week suffering from terrible writer's block. When this chapter finally came to me today, I had to put it out right away for fear that I would block again.

            Phil Coulson had survived a very bad day, and while there was work to be done, there was only one thing on his mind.  He had to get in touch with Darcy and make sure she had survived the day.

            “Skye?” he asked after the Hydra agents had been escorted out, “do you still have an untraceable laptop?”

            “What?  Why?  Hasn’t enough shady stuff happened today?”

            “That’s exactly why I need to check on my garden.”

            “Garden?” Skye asked, confused.  “But that’s what…”

            “Exactly,” Phil said, cutting her off.  “So, computer?” He asked with a pointed look.

            “Uhhh, yeah,” Skye said, fumbling with her bag and pulling out a laptop.

            “Thanks,” Phil said with a nod of his head before walking off to an empty room.

            “Wait!” Skye yelled, running after him.  “Let me help.”

            “What is there to help with?”  He asked.

            “It’s just that, well, she tried to contact you this morning, but I didn’t know your garden code so I just told her to hide.  I can’t help if I don’t’ know how, and things are only going to get harder from here on out.”

            “Skye,” Phil started.

            “No, AC.  You need to listen to me.  She tried to contact you and that wasn’t possible.  I’m the one that’s going to get the messages, and I might not always be able to get them to you.  I need to know your code, and she needs to know that she can trust me.”

            “That might take time,” Phil deferred.

            “Then we take some time,” Skye insisted.

            “And you did almost shoot her best friend,” he added with a tiny smile.

            “I didn’t know she was Jane Foster!” Skye cried, exasperated.

            Phil motioned to the door with his head.  “Let’s get to it then,” he said.  “No time like the present.”

            Skye smiled and followed him into the room.  He promptly set up the computer and got to work dealing with all the security before he could send his message.

            _Garden a little worse for the wear but still standing._  He typed, allowing Skye to watch as he did.

            “What does that mean?  She mentioned gardens in her message.”

            “It’s just code for life in general,” he said.  “We set it up when I went to college and she was only 8.  That way she could tell me how things were at home without having to say anything that could be overheard.”  Phil looked at the time and winced.  “I don’t know how things played out on her end, but she might not respond tonight.”

            “Can you even think about sleeping right now?”  Skye asked.

            “No,” Phil said, eyebrow furrowing.

            “Well then she probably isn’t either,” Skye shrugged.  “I mean, I assume she’s a lot like you.”

            “I suppose she is,” Phil hedged.  “I should also send a note to Barton.  I’m sure he’s still up.”  Phil said, pulling out his phone.

            “Like Hawkeye the Avenger?”

            “The same,” Phil said as he finished his text.

            “I thought they weren’t supposed to know about you.”

            “They don’t.  Only Barton knows because of Darcy.”

            “Because of Darcy?”  Skye pressed.

            “Well, it’s complicated,” Phil said, feeling a bit unsure about sharing more.  Luckily the computer pinged as his phone vibrated at the same time.

            _The garden is still standing.  When will you be available to tour it?_

Phil let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.  He tossed his phone to Skye.  “Check that while I respond?” He asked.

            “On it,” Skye said, grabbing the phone.

            _Unclear.  The land here isn’t looking too great and I need to tend to it before it’s safe to visit._

“So, they’re dating?” Skye asked, smile playing at her lips.

            “What?” Phil asked.

            “Darcy and Barton.  I mean, I assume so based on his text,” she replied.

            Phil grabbed the phone.

            **Everyone here is fine.  I’m going to need you to come here as soon as possible.  Darcy threatened no sex until you visit and she can see for herself that you’re fine.**

Phil sighed.  “Yes,” he said, “they’re dating.  And it’s all my fault.”

            “Doesn’t sound like he’s blaming you,” Skye laughed.

            “Nope, I’m just blaming myself,” Phil said, cringing at the prankster team they made.         “Can’t be that bad AC,“ Skye said bumping his shoulder.

            “You haven’t seen the destruction they can cause in just one hour,” Phil replied, wiping his hand over his face.

            “Sounds like fun!” Skye smiled.  “So when are we visiting?  An undersexed Hawkeye sounds bad for the nation.”

            Phil groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO...while my brain took a vacation from writing, it DID keep up with the ideas. This story is going to be over soon (I finally decided on an ending point). I'm thinking 7 more chapters for an even 40.
> 
> Idea 1  
> My birthday is coming up (Nov 8) and I want to celebrate by doing a one-shot a day leading up to it. I'm looking for line prompts for each of my 7 birthday stories. Send me yours on tumblr!
> 
> Idea 2  
> I have my next long fic figured out. It will be a "You've Got Mail"/Bakery AU featuring Darcy and Sam. I'm going to shoot for that to start Dec 1. My goal is to have the whole story done by then and to release a chapter a day for the entire month, wrapping everything up on New Year's Eve. I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about that!


	34. Darcy Spills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long night, but something still needs to be addressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TAKE THAT WRITER'S BLOCK

             Darcy dropped mugs of coffee in front of everyone sitting in Tony’s lab, wrapping her hands around her own mug and hugging it close to her chest.  Clint yawned next to her and scratched his neck.  Jane had her head down on the table, but Darcy could tell she was still awake.

            “So,” Tony said casually, “now that we’ve dealt with Hydra at SI, is it time to talk about who you’ve been sending creepy messages to?”

            “What?”  Darcy asked.

            “Who have you been talking to about gardens?”  Tony asked.

            “How did you know about that?”  Darcy asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

            “What, did you think I wouldn’t?”

            “Not, really,” Darcy said.  “That was supposed to be a completely secure line.”

            Tony snorted.  “You live in Avengers Tower.  Did you really think something was so secure Jarvis and I couldn’t hack it?”

            “If you know what she’s saying to her friend,” Clint said, “then have you traced it back to its source?”

            “I have,” Tony said smugly.

            “Shit,” Darcy said under her breath.

            “That makes your options telling me who you’re talking to, or watching me go knocking on their door.”

            Darcy took a deep breath and looked at Clint.  He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.  “It’s your secret,” he said softly, “you have to decide to share it.”

            “You know I don’t like secrets, Lewis,” Tony said, fingers tapping on the tabletop.

            Jane pulled her head up, “Don’t harass my intern.  This secret is kind of a big deal.”

            Tony pointed at Jane, “Foster knows?!  Why can’t I know too?  Aren’t I a science bro?”

            “She had to tell me,” Jane said.  “Otherwise I would have never stayed put in Norway.”

            This gave Tony pause.  He looked between Darcy and Jane.

            “You already knew I was talking to someone at Shield,” Darcy said.  “Isn’t that enough?”

            “Not really, considering Shield turned out to be Hydra.  How do I know your friend isn’t a sleeper too?  I’ve got a responsibility to keep my tower and its occupants safe, even if that means safe from themselves.”

            “He’s not,” Clint said gruffly.

            Tony clapped his hands.  “Now we’re getting somewhere!  So, Birdie, how do you feel about your girlfriend talking to some guy at Shield?”

            “It’s not like that,” Clint said through gritted teeth.

            “That’s seriously gross,” Darcy added.

            “There’s no way he’s Hydra,” Jane added.  “He’s like, the most Shield person to ever Shield.”

            “More so than Cap?” Tony asked.

            Darcy let out a sharp laugh. 

            “What?  What’s so funny?”  Tony demanded.

            “She calls him Cap,” Clint said, and then added, “Well, now he’s Imposter Cap since the real deal is back.”

            “While your faith in your friend is really touching, Hydra has been hiding in plain sight for years, and you sound like you can’t make an accurate judgement about this guy.”

            “I promise you Tony,” Jane said earnestly, “you’d agree that there’s no way he’s Hydra.”

            “Well, let me be the judge of that,” Tony said petulantly.

            Darcy took a deep breath.  “I’m going to need you to keep your mouth shut until I say you can speak again if I’m going to tell you this,” Darcy said.

            “Fine.  No problem.  I can stay quiet.”

            Darcy looked between Clint and Jane, looking for reassurance that she was doing the right thing.

            “He’s going to need help after what went down,” Jane said to her quietly, “but only you can decide if we are the ones to give it to him.”

            Darcy looked over to Clint who just nodded his agreement with Jane.

            “Jesus, there is no way this will live up to all the hype you’ve created,” Tony grumbled.

            “Quiet,” Darcy ordered.  “That was the deal.”

            Tony made a show of zipping his lips for her.

            Darcy nodded and then started.  “I’ve been talking to my brother.  I know I told you he died, and, technically that wasn’t a lie.  However, he didn’t stay dead due to a series of events that were pretty terrible.  I need you to remember that part-everything that brought him back was excruciatingly painful both physically and emotionally.  I know you’re going to want to know about that part when this is done, but please remember that.”  Darcy paused, gathering herself to say the next part.  “You would have never seen this is in a single file you’ve hacked because it never was even written down.  The only people who know this are in this room and Fury.”  Then she added as an afterthought, “Oh, and I guess his current team too based on what happened in London.”  Darcy shook her head, “Sorry, I’m getting sidetracked.  The thing is, I’ve been checking in with my brother, who, as Jane said, is the most Shield person you’ve ever met.  Because you have met him.  You cried when he died.  Clint told me so.”  Clint smacked her arm.

            “Tell him, Darce,” Clint said.

            “My brother is Phil Coulson.”

            Tony opened his mouth, then closed it again, looking between Darcy, Jane, and Clint.  Then he nodded and said, “So, that surpassed the hype.”  Then he looked at all of them again and added, “Well, fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to send me prompts for my birthday one-shots. Thanks to those who've already prompted me on tumblr!


	35. Phil is Having a Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Phil thinks he might be able to breathe, Ward comes back with bad news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this last night, but was about 200 words shy o the end when the husband took me to "the city" to see a big screen showing of The Three Amigos. So, enjoy this morning treat!

            Phil hated the cold, but if meant he had a place he could regroup, he guessed he could stand it for a little bit.  He just needed to feel like he could breathe again and then he would go visit Darcy.  The fate of the world, though, was a touch more important than a visit at this moment.  Of course, just as he was thinking he could figure out the next steps, Ward came in, banged up and with the unhappy news that plenty of previously dealt with enemies were now free.  Phil sighed.  There was no rest for those who had to deal with the wicked.

            When he got back to base after saving Audrey, he was so weary and ready to see Darcy.  But as he looked at the empty hanger, he realized it wasn’t to be.

            “Where’s our plane?”

            “And our team?

            Phil sighed as his phone pinged.

            “What’s that?” Fitz asked.

            “Secure line to Darcy,” Phil said, pulling out his phone.  “Must have come through now that I’m connected to a secure network.”

            “Who’s Darcy?” Trip asked.

            Phil looked up, contemplating what he was about to say.  Trip had proven himself, and Darcy was safe from Hydra threats if he was a double agent (which Phil doubted).  Finally Phil said, “My sister.”

            “Well I hope she can tell us where our team is,” Fitz muttered.

            Phil looked down at his phone.

            **Your garden is on fire.  Grant Ward is Hydra. Be safe, IC.**

Phil looked up and at the others.  “We need to check the security tapes right now.”

            “What’s wrong, sir?” Jemma asked.

            Phil pursed his lips.  “We need to see the tapes before I can say,” he said, moving quickly through the facility, tapping out a response to Darcy as he went.

            **How is your garden?  Mine might be a bit worse before it gets better.**

            After watching the tapes, Phil felt unsettled. “I want you all to do a sweep of the facility.  Something still isn’t adding up.”

            “And you still haven’t told us what Darcy said,” Trip said.

            “That’s because I want her to be wrong,” Phil said.  “Now go check while I try and find out where her information came from.”  As the pieces of his team dispersed, Phil looked down to see he had missed a message from Darcy.

            **There’s more iron in my garden than there used to be.**

**What does that even mean?** He asked.

            His thoughts were penetrated by Simmons screaming.  He took off running toward her voice, and found her being held by Fitz in the supply room.  Trip skidded around the corner.

            “What!” Trip yelled.

            Simmons raised a finger up toward the body that Phil could now see was dripping blood down the wall.

            “I think it was Ward,” Fitz whispered hoarsely.

            “How do you know?” Phil asked.

            “The bathroom.  Skye left a message.  He’s Hydra.”

            “I really wanted Darcy to be wrong.”

            “That’s what she said?” Trip asked, incredulous.

            Phil’s phone pinged again.

**Agent Agent, I thought you were better than that.  I thought Darc was being a bit too on the nose.**

Phil groaned.

            “Sir?” Trip asked.

            “Stark.  That’s how she knew.  She told Stark.”

            “As in Tony Stark?” Trip asked.

            “Yes.”

            “Well that doesn’t have to be bad, right?”  Jemma asked.  “He can help us.”

            “Obviously you’ve never tried to work with the man.”

            “Does it really matter?”  Fitz asked.  “May’s gone, Skye’s gone, and everyone is saying Ward is Hydra, even though I don’t really want to believe it.  We need help and we’re not going to find it here.”

            “It seems very unlikely that Tony Stark is Hydra, so we can trust him.”

            “Barton’s there too,” Phil admitted.

            “The Avenger?”  Trip asked.

            Phil nodded.

            “What the hell have we been doing here if you have an Avenger, no, _two_ on call?!” Trip asked.

            “Think of the labs,” Jemma sighed.

            **You ready for a visit?**   Phil sent.

            **Of course!  You and I have a lot to talk about, Phil.  (Like do you know how much sex your sister has with bird brain?)**

            Phil sighed.  “Okay guys, let’s figure out what we’re going to take with us and how to get to New York.”

            **Shall I send a plane?**

            “Well, the getting there is covered,” he muttered as he sent Tony info about the automatic guns at the entrance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering, Game of Love and I are fighting about just how the final chapter will end. I promise I'm working on it, though.
> 
> Also, I spent some time on Monday watching You've Got Mail and taking notes, and a LOT of things are snapping into place!


	36. Darcy is Bait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone needs to save Skye.

Tony had sent Clint to pick up Phil and his team, promising to keep Darcy safe until his return, much to Darcy’s annoyance.

“I can take care of myself, you know,” she grumbled.

“I do know,” Tony said, “but have you seen Barton’s sad eyes?  I think he learned them in the circus.”

Darcy sighed, but nodded.  Clint _did_ have really good sad eyes.  “Can we at least go get some coffee or something?”  Darcy asked, already itching at the idea of being confined to the tower.

“I can send Happy to get it,” Tony said, “but sorry, kiddo, you gotta see that it’s a bad idea to leave right now.  Hydra is going to be desperate since their helicarriers failed and they were made public.  And, on top of that, some nutjobs probably think they can do stupid things like take pot shots at people and claim it’s because they’re Hydra even though they’re not.” 

Darcy wished she could argue, but Tony had a point.  “Fine,” she sulked, “but no need to send Happy.  You have some cool coffee machines here.  I’ll play around with those.”

“Sir, I need to alert you to a situation,” Jarvis chimed in.

"Show me, J,” Tony said, swiveling around to see the projection Jarvis had put up. 

Darcy looked too, wondering what was up.  “Isn’t that…?” She started

“Skye,” Jane finished.  “Yeah.”

“And isn’t that…?”

“Ward,” Jane nodded.

“J, do we have audio?” Tony asked.

“Of course, sir,” Jarvis said before adding the audio.

_“What are we doing here Skye?”  Ward asked._

_“The hard drive needs two things in order to be unlocked.  One of those is this location because I have it locked to coordinates.  The other is serious processing power.  I built a program that acts like a parasite and uses the power of the tower without being recognized.”_

“Can she do that?”  Darcy asked.

“No,” Tony said.  “J?” He added.

“She is currently trying to hack into the system Miss Lewis uses with Agent Coulson.”

“She came here to get help,” Jane said.

“Very clever,” Tony said.  “But now we need to figure out how to get her without tipping off Ward and without getting anyone killed.”

Darcy’s phone pinged.  She looked down at the text.  “I think I know who can help us,” she said, showing the screen to Tony.

Tony let out a low whistle.  “Tell Maria that she and May need to take the back entrance so as not to spook Ward.  Jarvis?  Give them lab access and send them here.”

“Of course sir,” Jarvis said as Darcy typed out a response.

Ten minutes later Hill and May had joined Tony, Jane and Darcy, and had been briefed on the situation.

“Ward’s getting antsy,” May said, looking at the screen.

“We need to act soon if we’re going to have any chance at saving Skye and getting Ward into custody,” Maria added.

“I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it,” Darcy said.  “Remember those bracelets we were working on last week, Tony?”

“The taser bracelets?” He asked.

“Those are the ones,” she said.  “Send me down there with those on while you guys get into place.  He won’t suspect that I’m capable of anything, and if he tries to take me, I’ll be able to give him a shock.”

“But if he’s holding you,” Jane said.

“I know,” Darcy cut her off, “I get tased too.  Small price to take him down and save Skye - one I might not even need to pay.”

“Agent will kill me if I let you do that,” Tony said.

“Nah,” Darcy countered, “he knows I’m good at steamrolling people.”

May smirked.  “She’s the only one that has a chance to keep him busy while we clear out the lobby and get in place to take him down.  I don’t like it, though.”

“Yeah, well I’ll take care of Phil when the time comes,” Darcy said.  “He’s spent his entire life protecting me.  It’s time I protected someone for him.”  She turned to Tony.  “So where are the bracelets?”

Tony got up and opened a drawer, pulling out the thin metal circles.  “Are you sure about this?”  He asked, holding them up.

“Never been more sure,” Darcy said, snatching them and putting them on.  “Now let’s do this before Ward decides they need to leave.”

“We’ll need a solid ten minutes of distraction,” May said.

“Not a problem,” Darcy said, tossing her hair, “I’m a great talker."


	37. Phil Watches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all know what's happening here-right? Phil watches Darcy in action.

            Phil frowned.  He’d been doing that a lot lately.  Something wasn’t right, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what. 

            “ETA?” He asked Clint.

            “Five minutes,” Clint said.  He must have heard the concern in Phil’s voice though because he added, “three if I really push it and we land a little hard.”

            “Do it,” Phil said.  “I don’t know what, but something is wrong.”

            Clint simply nodded and Phil felt the aircraft thrust.

            As promised, they touched down three minutes later.  Phil smiled when he realized that Clint had called one small bounce a “little hard” for a landing.  As soon as they were inside the Tower, Clint called out, “Jarvis, what’s going on?”

            Phil was thankful that Clint had asked.  It was strange that they hadn’t been met once they landed.

            “Please direct your attention to the wall,” Jarvis said, projecting a live-feed from the lobby.

            “Is that Ward and Skye?” Fitz asked.

            “And Darcy,” Jane said as she entered the room.  Phil turned at the sound of her voice, though he didn’t want to look away from the video feed.  “Ward and Skye showed up here about half an hour ago.  It was clear she came here to get help.”

            “Why is Darcy down there?” Clint asked.

            “We needed to distract Ward while we cleared out the lobby to take him down,” Jane said.  “Darcy said you’d be mad about it but that she’d, and this is a direct quote, deal with your overprotective bullshit later.”

            “Which one of us was she talking about?” Phil asked, looking at Clint.

            Jane shrugged.  “Probably whichever one was being overprotective.”

            “Those must do something,” Fitz said, tapping Darcy’s wrists on the image.

            “Yes,” Simmons added, tapping also, “right there you can see a button.  It’s supposed to look decorative, but it’s definitely a button.”

            “Taser bracelets,” Clint sighed.

            “What?” Phil asked.

            “Tony and Darcy were working on taser bracelets for her to wear whenever she went out.  I didn’t think they had worked out how to keep them from tasing her too.”

            Jane didn’t look at them as she said, “They didn’t.”

            Phil fought to keep his calm.  “Dr. Foster, what are we supposed to do to help?”

            “Nothing,” Jane said.  “We weren’t sure if you’d be back before this was finished.  My job was to inform you and keep you in place.”

            “Like hell,” Clint started to say as Jane slapped him. 

            “You stay put!” She said icily.  “If Darcy is going to stay safe, Ward can’t know she knows he’s Hydra.  I won’t let you hurt her just because you’re worried she can’t handle herself.”

            “I’d say she’s doing just fine,” Simmons said, gesturing toward the screen.

            Phil watched as Darcy placed her hand on Ward’s to stop his drumming.  He turned angry eyes on her, but she stared back unimpressed and continued her stream of useless commentary with Skye.  He watched as the people in the lobby dwindled down to very few.  He noticed the exact moment Ward noticed that they were mostly alone.

            “This always happens just after the lunch rush,” Darcy was saying, keeping her hand on top of Ward’s.  “Why are you so antsy?  No one’s going to wonder what you’re doing here since I’m with you.”  

            “I just don’t like it,” Ward said through gritted teeth.  Then he went to pull Darcy’s hand off of his.  “And I really don’t like you touching me.”

            “Testy, testy,” Darcy sighed.  “Whatever dude.  Just stop with the drumming.  It’s driving me nuts.”

            As soon as the words left her mouth, the remaining people in the lobby sprung into action.  May was aiming an icer at Ward while Hill covered the door.  Iron Man was hovering menacingly just outside the door, ready to act.  Skye was already out of her chair and running away from Ward, but Darcy had been grabbed by Ward, and he was holding her against his chest and reaching for the gun in his waistband.

            “Of fucking course,” Darcy said as he grabbed her.  She was faster than him, though, and had pushed the button on her bracelet before his hand made it all the way behind is back.  They both convulsed and then fell limply to the floor.

            Clint was already at the elevator as Phil turned to join him.

            “Shit, shit, shit.  I’m coming Darce,” Clint said as he waited impatiently for the elevator door to open.

            As it opened, Phil stepped in with him.  “Bear always did love a bit of drama,” he said as the elevator car descended into the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is almost done. Now I need to get my butt in gear to get the You've Got Mail au going! (December 1 is surprisingly soon!)


	38. Darcy Learns the Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of taking Ward down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is it guys! Thank you!

            Darcy awoke in medical, groggy and basically blind since she didn’t have her glasses on.

            “God damn that hurt,” she groaned as her hands groped for a bedside table with her glasses.  A rough, calloused hand that she recognized as Clint’s grasped her hand and placed her glasses in her palm.

            “Don’t move too much if it hurts, Bear,” her brother said from her other side while she slipped on her glasses.

            “Jarvis?” Darcy asked.

            “Yes Miss Lewis?” He answered. 

            “I’m sure you have all sorts of feedback from the incident, but I think we got something wrong.  That hurt a hell of a lot more than I thought it would.”

            “Noted, Miss,” Jarvis said.

            “You’re not wrong,” Tony called from the doorway.  “It was double what it should have been because both bracelets went off instead of just one.”

            Darcy flopped back against the pillows.  “How the hell didn’t that kill me?” she asked.

            “Because Agent Brother was there,” Tony said.  “He was pretty handy with the CPR until we got a medical team to you.”  Tony turned to Phil, “Also, don’t think we’re done.  You and I have a loooong conversation ahead of us.”

            “Can’t wait,” Phil said dryly, making Darcy laugh a bit, then wince at the pain.

            “Why does my chest hurt so much?”

            “CPR,” Phil said simply.  “I cracked a few of your ribs doing it.”

            Darcy patted his hand.  “Better to be alive,” she said sagely,

            “But now that you’re fully awake we can do some pain meds,” Phil said.

            “Please tell me you’re giving her the good stuff,” Clint said.

            “You think we have anything besides the good stuff?” Tony scoffed.

            “Have you ever seen drugged up Darcy?”  Clint asked.

            “No?” Tony said quizzically.

            “Then you might want to hang out for a bit,” Clint said, pushing the call button on Darcy’s bed.  “Besides, I have something to tell her, and I think this will go better if she’s drugged up.”

            “So help me Barton if you’ve done something stupid,” Darcy said as the nurse came in,

            “Nah, nothing stupid,” he said.  “Actually, I think Phil will be excited to hear this too."

            Darcy swallowed the pill she had been handed and looked at Clint with a little squint.  “Something you want me drugged up for that IC will like?  I will actually kill you if you propose while I am on drugs.”

            “That wouldn’t make me happy,” Phil said.  “It would make me fear for your sanity, and might lead to the death of Clint.”

            Tony laughed.  “Never took you for an overprotective brother.”

            “It’s like you don’t know him at all,” Darcy said, her words already slurring a bit at the edges.  “Cap is like, the most protective to ever protect.”

            “It’s true,” Clint said.  “I mean, he did die trying to protect us from Loki.”

            “Which we still need to talk about,” Tony said.

            “And he did send me here with Darcy,” Clint added.

            “I guess he did send me all those scientists too,” Tony said a bit thoughtfully.  “Though that wasn’t as much about protection, was it?”

            “Nah.  That was more about sticking it to Fury.”

            Tony barked out some more laughter.  “Okay, bird brain,” he said once he caught his breath, “so what’s your news?  Little bird over there seems to be floating already.”

            “Well, it has been hours since she last ate,” Phil mused.

            “Still with us, D?” Clint asked.

            “’M here,” she said, voice like wispy clouds.

            “Soooo,” Clint said, “know how you call Phil ‘IC’ because the real Cap is around now?”

            “Uh huh,” Darcy said.

            “Well, you might have to be ‘IB’ now, because the Winter Soldier is none other than Bucky Barnes.”

            Darcy tried really hard to focus on Clint, but he was soft around the edges.  “Are you shitting me?” She asked with minimal slur.

            “Nope,” Clint said with a smirk.

            “How’s it feel to be ‘Imposter Bear’?” Phil asked her.

            “Like I’m going to have to smack you when my body starts following directions again.”

            Phil smiled.  “She’s going to be just fine,” was the last thing she heard as she drifted to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tuesday marks the start of my Darcy/Sam You've Got Mail/bakery AU, so if that sounds like your jam, stay tuned!


End file.
